Russia a Top-10 Tourist Destination

Although international tourism continues to decline in Russia, falling 16 percent last year to the same level as ten years earlier, domestic tourism is flourishing, up 20 percent in the last year. Moreover, Russia remains among the world’s ten most visited countries. It can be noted that, while Turkey spends €120 million per year on advertising its resorts abroad, including €12 million in Russia, Russia spends only €3 million for that purpose.

Due to high transportation cost linked to Russia’s enormous size and a shortage of hotel accommodations at many Russian destinations, vacationing within Russia is sometimes more expensive for Russians than a Turkish holiday. Russia’s well-developed and comparatively inexpensive rail system partially offsets those tendencies, however. While overall standards of service are rising in Russia and falling at beach destinations such as Turley or Egypt, there is a clear shortage of luxury accommodations in Russia, there is frequently an overabundance of rooms in 1-3 – star hotels, even at the peak of the summer season. That is the opposite of the situation in Europe.

Those data indicate that, while the richest 4-6 percent of the population prefers to travel out of the country, where luxury accommodations are cheaper, the majority of Russian cannot afford even the inexpensive hotels within the country. In 2007, 28 million people vacationed in Russia, including 2.2 million foreigners. The same year, 9.4 million Russian citizens vacationed outside the country. There remains 82 percent of the Russian population that does not vacation within the country and 93.4 percent that does not travel abroad. Economic explanations for this lack of activity seem more convincing than lack of interest in travel.