Russia forecast to have 5 mln foreign visitors in 2025 - Economic Development Ministry

MOSCOW. Nov 14 (Interfax) - The number of foreign tourists with hotel accommodation in Russia is expected to approximate five million this year, Economic Development Minister Dmitry Vakhrukov told Interfax on Friday.

"We have tourist flow indicators in the Tourism and Hospitality Industry national project, which are showing the number of tourists using collective means of accommodation, i.e. hotels. That is a separate statistics form. Currently, we estimate that about five million tourists will have visited Russia by the end of 2025," Vakhrukov said.

According to data from the border agency of the Federal Security Service, Russia recorded more than 1.28 international visitor arrivals in the first nine months of 2025, most of them from China.

The tourist flow figures may vary from agency to agency due to different computation methods, Vakhrukov said.

In January-May, Russia recorded over 1.28 million international arrivals, up 14% on the same period last year, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko said in August. Among non-CIS countries, the biggest number of tourists come from China, Saudi Arabia, India and the United Arab Emirates.