Russian tourists outbound flow is reduced, but at a slower pace than in 2015, according to the Federal State Statistics Service Rosstat.
For the first half of 2016, Russians made 13.2 million trips abroad, which is 13.1% less than in the same period of 2015 ( 15.2 million trips). For comparison, in the first half of 2015 compared to the same period of 2014 outbound flow decreased by 24.4%.
In the first six months of this year, they often traveled to Abkhazia (1.5 million visits), Finland (1.26 million), Kazakhstan (1.25 million), Ukraine (816 thousands), China (712) , Estonia (698), Poland (581), Germany (468), Thailand (441) and Spain (321).
Compared with the same period last year, Turkey and Egypt were excluded from the most popular destinations list. During the first 6 months of this year, Russians made only 168 thousand trips to Turkey, while last year over the same period they went on a 1.37 million trips (87.7% reduction). Between January-June 2015 Russians visited Egypt 1.27 million times.
The main shift in the Russian market was recorded in Tunisia, where tourist arrivals grew almost 7 times: During the first half of 2016, the North African country was visited by 186 thousand Russians ranking 18th among the most popular destinations.
Statistical discrepancy
The list of the remaining popular destinations includes: Cyprus (314 thousand trips), Italy (313), Lithuania ( 303), Georgia (298), Azerbaijan (267), Greece (260), UAE (240), Bulgaria (182) and France (180).
Thus, for Greece, Rosstat records 260,000 arrivals, an increase of 22.1% whereas the Bank of Greece announced for the same period 162,000 arrivals (+7.7%), Apparently, the Bank of Greece should try to locate the reasons behind this discrepancy.
Cyprus showed great momentum with an increase of almost 50% followed by China (+45%). Upward tendecies were recorded in Thailand (+24.2%), Bulgaria (+ 23.8%), Greece (+ 22.1%) Georgia (+ 21.2%) and Spain (+ 14.6%).
Vietnam also rose in popularity with 177 thousand Russians visiting during the first half of 2016 compared to 152 thousand visits during the same period last year (+ 16.4%). United Arab Emirates remained relatively stable at 240 thousand trips compared to 244 thousand last year and so did Estonia with 698 thousand visits against 696 thousand in 2015.
Russian tourist arrivals decreased in Finland (-17%), Kazakhstan (- 11.5%) and Poland (-10.6%). There was also a 7% drop in the number of Russians traveling to France (180 thousand), 15.7% fewer trips to the Czech Republic (152 thousand) and 10.2% in Israel (140 thousand).
RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report
