Russian travelers are increasingly reserving journeys to Europe, with a sharp rise in hotel bookings for Spain, France and Italy, according to leading online travel aggregators.Overall, outgoing tourist from Russia was up by a fourth in 2024 as more than 29million trips abroad were made in 2015, including 11.5 millionfor tourist a 25% increase on journeys made in 2023, Interfax mentioned the FSBs Border Guard Service as saying.Direct flights between Russia and the EU were stopped following the invasion of Ukraine three years earlier.
It is still possible to make the trip by means of nations not taking part in the sanctions such as Turkey and Serbia, although traffic has actually dropped as the cost and journey time ballooned.
A journey between Moscow and Paris that utilized to take a number of hours and cost a number of hundred euros now takes around 12 hours and expenses around 2,000 euros.But that has not stopped diehard tourists and the numbers of tourists making the effort have been increasing.
Hotel bookings in Italy for the upcoming spring season (March-May 2025) through OneTwoTrip have actually surged by one-third year-on-year, while bookings for Spain are up 65% and France 45%, the company reported, the Vedomostibusiness everyday reported.Italy now accounts for 9.8% of all outbound trips from Russia, up from 7.3% last spring, with France increasing to 6.7% from 4.6% and Spain to 3.8% from 2.3%.
Yandex Travel tape-recorded even steeper development, with reservations in Italy increasing 6.5 times, France almost 7.5 times and Spain 7.6 times.The Russian Europe-bound travel sector is rebounding after a sharp decrease in the very first 2 years of the war, when the number of journeys by Russian people to EU nations fell by 26% y/y to 1.73 million, according to FSB data pointed out byRBC.However, asbne IntelliNewsreported, the military Keynesianism boost the Russian economy has gotten thanks to heavy state military spending has actually produced a newwar middle class, and the lifestyle for regular Russians has actually enhanced noticeably over the last 3 years as theirsavings swell, despite the economic turbulence.
The stabilization of Schengen visa issuance has contributed to the growth in need, Dmitry Gorin, vice president of the Russian Union of Travel Industry, toldVedomosti.
He noted that in 2024, about 449,000 Schengen visas were provided to Russians for tourism functions, with 17 of the 29 Schengen-zone nations granting them.According to the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR), 1.4 million trips were made to EU countries for tourist in 2024.
Of these, 800,000 were overland by means of Estonia, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Norway, while 600,000 were taken by air through linking flights in friendly countries.While online travel platforms such as Ozon Travel and Ostrovok did not disclose precise booking figures, the latter confirmed that Italy and France remain consistently popular locations year-round.
Summertime hotel reservations (June-August 2025) in Italy and France have increased by 35% and 12% respectively, according to Russian travel agents.The hassle and expense of going to Europe have likewise driven Russians to end up being more adventurous and they have been taking a trip additional field throughout the holiday.
In 2024, the number of trips by Russian tourists abroad rose by 15.4%, with Turkey which still has direct flight connections to Russia and a visa-free routine accounting for almost 40% of the marketplace, or 6.2 million journeys were made.
It is followed by Abkhazia (5.81 million), Kazakhstan (2.81 million), the United Arab Emirates (1.99 million) and China (1.89 million).
But locations such as Thailand, Mexico and Japan have likewise seen significant increases in Russian visitors, as the latter, committed to paying more for aircraft tickets and resigned to longer flights, look around the world for new locations.
For example, journeys to Japan were up 2.3-fold y/y in 2024.
The top 10 locations in 2024 also included Egypt (1.47 million), Georgia (1.35 million), Thailand (1.32 million), China (1.02 million), Armenia (967,700) and Azerbaijan (709,300).
Amongst the popular more exotic favorite destinations were Cuba (130,600), Sri Lanka (114,900) and Maldives (102,890).
And during this years long New Years break where the majority of the country is off till Jan.
14, the so-called Old New Year of the Grigorian Calendar the tourist flow from Russia to Thailand skyrocketed by 35% y/y to nearly 4 million foreign tourists, according to the Tourism Ministry.Nevertheless, despite geopolitical stress, European locations seem gaining back popularity among the travel-loving Russian population, boosted by enhanced visa gain access to, a recovering tourism industry and increasing disposable incomes.The Russian nationwide carrier Aeroflot has also benefited after it stepped into the empty slots left by the departure of all Western providers.
The number of travelers brought by Aeroflot Group was up almost 2% y/y in January to 3.9 million individuals.
The airplanes are full of the traveler load factor up to 86% in the reporting duration, reaching 88.6% in the domestic section and 82.8% in the global segment, the airline said Tuesday.Sanctions have actually been an advantage for domestic tourism operators, requiring their global competitors to leave the market, regardless of strong demand and increasing incomes.
In the first nine months of 2024, personal and public investment in the Russian tourism market grew by 44% y/y, reaching 652 billion rubles ($6.8 billion) a 1.5-fold increase on a year previously, Vedomosti mentioned Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko as saying.
Tourism and Hospitality is among PutinsNational Projects 2.1 reform categories that are created to improve the quality of life for ordinary Russians and domestic tourist has also received considerable financial investment and aids.
Under the aid program for the construction of modular hotels for 2023-2024, more than 600 tasks with a space stock of about 14,500 spaces have been supported.
A new require applications under the program was announced in December and will last until March 3.
This post initially appeared in bne IntelliNews.