According to the World Without Borders tourism association, last year more than 600,000 trips were made to Moscow and St. Petersburg by Chinese citizens as part of organized tourist groups for tourism purposes. This figure represents an increase of 19% compared to 2017.
As the press service of the association reported to the TRN portal, the majority of Chinese tourists still enter the European part of our country through Moscow: about 400 thousand visits (+14.5%); more than 200 thousand Chinese tourists (+29%) began their journey across Russia from the Northern capital.
"The recent New Year holidays continued the trend of increasing visits to the two capitals during this period. Thus, a week before the Russian New Year and two holiday weeks this year, Moscow and St. Petersburg were visited by almost 15 thousand tourists from China, which is 30% more than last year's figure," said the World Without Borders.
They also noted that an increase in arrivals through border control points located in other regions of the Russian Federation was recorded. Thus, in Novosibirsk, a 10% increase in arrivals from China was noted compared to 2017 (almost 25,500 visits).
“Visa-free” group entry from China remains predominant in the overall flow of Chinese citizens entering Russia: it accounts for more than half of the number of trips according to Rosstat estimates and almost 80% from the statistics provided by the Border Service of the FSB of the Russian Federation, which specifically records arrivals for tourism purposes.
In November 2018, the group tourist flow in Russia as a whole exceeded the mark of 1 million visits for the first time; the final statistics for the past year will be summarized in the near future, but it is obvious that 2018 will be another year of growth in Chinese inbound tourism.
According to the World Without Borders Association, the average size of a classic visa-free group is 30 people, and the average age of a group member is 50–60 years. However, tour operators note that in 2018 the number of groups with an average age of 30–40 years has increased. Overall, Chinese group tourism has become 3 years younger since 2014 (from 58 years in 2014 to 55 years).
The development paths of Russian-Chinese tourism exchange, unresolved problems in the industry, fresh statistics, etc. will be discussed at the VII Russian-Chinese Tourism Forum, which will take place on March 11, 2019 in Moscow.
Source: trn-news.ru