11 Nov 2024 15:16

Outbound tourism up 23% in Russia in Jan-Sept - experts

MOSCOW. Nov 11 (Interfax) - Outbound tourism grew 23.2% year-on-year in Russia to 8.7 million trips in the first nine months of 2024, the Russian Union of Travel Industry (RUTI) said, citing statistical data from the Federal Security Service (FSB)'s Border Service.

Turkey was the leading tourist destination in January-September with 3.67 million trips, or 7.8% more than last year. The United Arab Emirates ranked second with 986,200 trips, up 6.8% from 2023. Egypt ranked third with 834,600 Russian tourist arrivals in the first nine months of this year, up 12.9% from 2023. China ranked fourth with 715,500 trips, up more than 300% compared with the respective period of last year. Thailand ranked fifth with 640,000 Russian tourist arrivals, or 23% more than in January-September 2023.

The top ten also includes Abkhazia (371,900), Armenia (250,900), Georgia (184,600), Azerbaijan (177,600) and Uzbekistan (146,400).

Tourist arrivals grew the most in Vietnam (936 times), Georgia (447.8%) and China (426.6%).

"This is the low base effect: direct flights to those destinations resumed, respectively, in January 2024, May 2023 and March 2024," the RUTI said.

In all, 22.49 million outbound trips were taken in January-September 2024.

Turkey topped the list of travel destinations with over 5 million trips, followed by Abkhazia (4.66 million), Kazakhstan (2.21 million), China (1.36 million), the UAE (1.34 million), Georgia (1.06 million), Egypt (1.03 million), Thailand (890,300), Armenia (758,650), and Azerbaijan (547,350).