Surprisingly, the Russian tourism statistics were published by the Russian state secret service, the FSB. The data shows a significant increase in the number of foreign tourist visits, with 670,700 foreign visitors arriving in Russia in 2023. This is three times the number in 2022. Almost a third of the visitors came from China, for whom visa-free travel for group trips has been introduced. After the tripling of Chinese travellers, the most significant change was the doubling of German and Turkish visitors, with arrivals from the United Arab Emirates and Turkmenistan adding to the top 5. The number of tourist arrivals and the number of foreigners crossing the border is an order of magnitude different, with the latter at 15.4 million. The Association of Russian Travel Agencies, ATOR, estimated the number of foreign travellers in 2023 at 580 000. Industry experts predict that the number of travellers to Russia could quadruple by 2024, largely thanks to the weakened rouble, but the new facilitated e-visa should also be a big help.
