Foreigners' demand for tours to Russia grows by 30%

Foreign tourists' demand for this year summer tours to Russia has grown by 30%, according to air flight booking systems.

Foreigners' demand for tours to Russia grows by 30%

Foreign tourists' demand for this year summer tours to Russia has grown by 30%, according to air flight booking systems.

Foreign travelers are now attracted not only by Moscow and Saint Petersburg but also Siberia – primarily Irkutsk located in close vicinity to the Baikal Lake. Foreigners also are keen to benefit from Ruble devaluation, using Russia as a point of transit on their way to other countries, as follows from the data of booking systems.

According to Momondo search service, most such bookings are made by travelers from Germany (+34,6% year on year), USA (11%), Denmark (37,9%), Norway (127,9%), Israel (55,5%) and UK (143,9%).

Moscow and Saint Petersburg will be mostly demanded by foreigners from June to August with their popularity growing by 26.6% and 35.6%, respectively. The number of tourists intending to visit Simferopol grew by 33,4%, Novosibirsk by 25.9%, Krasnodar by 53%, Sochi by 58.2%, Yekaterinburg by 38.6% and Irkutsk by 99.5%.

According to Skyscanner, the number of early bookings pertaining to flights to Russia from abroad grew by 35% in 2016 year on year.

From the beginning of the year, travel agencies have been observing a sharp growth of demand for package tours having Moscow as a point of departure on the part of foreign travelers scheduling their trips to Southeast Asia, in particular, Thailand.