Russian tourists cautious about traveling to UK after Salisbury incident - Rostourism head
MOSCOW. Dec 20 (Interfax) - Russian citizens are cautious about traveling to the United Kingdom due to the anti-Russian attitude of the British authorities, according to Federal Tourism Agency (Rostourism) head Oleg Safonov.
"We have no statistics for Salisbury but tourist arrivals in the UK dipped 11% year-on-year in the first three quarters of 2018. I believe that, given the anti-Russian activity of the British authorities, our citizens have been cautious about traveling to the UK," Safonov told the newspaper Izvestia in response to a question whether the Salisbury incident had made it a popular destination.
"Rostourism issues travel alerts for particular countries when the Foreign Ministry informs it about a threat to the life or health of Russian citizens," he said.
"We abstain from giving recommendations as a government agency in other cases. Our people are smart and capable of making their own decisions," Safonov said.