Russia offers visa-free exchange of tourist groups to India

MOSCOW. Aug 10 (Interfax) - Russia has invited India to sign an intergovernmental agreement on visa-free exchanges of tourist groups, similar to those with China and Iran, Russian Economic Development Minister Maxim Reshetnikov said on Thursday.

Speaking of visa-free tourist exchanges between Russia and China, Reshetnikov said that the mechanism of the agreement relaunched on August 1 was still being discussed.

"Each such process includes the application of law: who meets them in those zones and some other matters that we have to address together with the border service. The settlement of certain issues needs to be finalized. We have paid a visit. Iranian colleagues are acting likewise. Work is being done with China. India will be next, it is still necessary to sign an intergovernmental agreement and so on. We will develop things further," Reshetnikov said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 channel (VGTRK).

"We made them [India] an offer. A discussion is underway through diplomatic channels, and it will be expedited," he said.

The minimal objective is to regain the pre-Covid level of inbound tourism, Reshetnikov said.

"In general, we definitely need to replace the lost European arrivals from unfriendly countries. We also have inbound tourism objectives. We are building four- and five-star facilities for inbound tourism, among others," he said.

Russia and China resumed visa-free exchanges of tourist groups under an intergovernmental agreement on August 1. Groups of five to 50 tourists organized by tour operators will be able to travel visa-free for up to 15 days. The Russian Union of Travel Industry expects such tours to boost tourism, but says that tour operators need time to streamline the process and visa-free tourist exchanges will not resume until September.

Russia was visited by 5 million foreign tourists in 2019. Inbound tourism revenue neared $11 billion.