Tourism from Russia to U.S. continues, despite difficulties with visas, plane tickets - Russian Travel Industry Union

MOSCOW. Jan 14 (Interfax) - The number of tourists to the United States has been limited by the inability to apply for a visa in Russia and expensive plane tickets in recent years, but the demand for visas at consulates abroad, as well as interest in travel, have persisted, the Russian Travel Industry Union said.

U.S. visa processing in Russia is currently unavailable, the union said. It was possible to apply for a visa in many foreign countries before September 2025, but then only in Poland's Warsaw or Kazakhstan's Astana. This significantly complicated the process of obtaining visas and limited the potential demand.

The cost of plane tickets from Moscow to New York, according to travel aggregators, starts from 80,000 rubles with two transfers and from 95,000 with one transfer.

The share of hotel and flight bookings in the U.S. by Russian travelers through domestic travel aggregators last year was less than 1% of the total number of hotel bookings abroad, director of the Association of Travel Aggregators Alexander Bragin said.

Around 250,000 Russian citizens visited the U.S. in 2019.

As reported, from January 21, the U.S. will suspend the issuance of immigration visas to citizens of 75 countries, including Russia, as part of stricter control over applicants.