Russian Tour Operators are asking their country’s Foreign Ministry to abandon entry visas for citizens of several European countries, arguing that this could enhance tourism and encourage reciprocity from nations known for hospitality toward Russians.
In an open letter to Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, their association announced that it would be of great benefit if the authorities discarded any visa restrictions for citizens of Italy, Spain and Greece.
Loyal attitude
“The visa liberalization measures could be applied to nations that provide us with a large flow of tourists and at the same time have loyal attitude to Russian travelers. These three countries showed maximum attention and care about Russian tourists, they are thinking about tourist relations between our nations,” the association’s executive director, Maya Lomidze, commented to TASS.
She also clarified that the letter was sent after worries that Russia could respond to the introduction of the Visa Information System by the European Union by perplexing its own visa application procedures. Especially, the travel industry is cautioning that adding fingerprinting as part of the visa procedure could drastically sever the number of European tourists in Russia.
Biometric information
Ms. Lomidze spoke of the latest situation in the UK, where Russia initiated to request biometric information from applicants together with visa forms, and the number of tourists who wanted to visit the country instantly diminished by 90 percent.
Russian diplomats have not declared that the tightening of visa rules by the EU would trigger reciprocal measures on the Russian side, but Lomidze underlined that she and her colleagues were concerned by the fact that there had been no official denial of the rumors on such measures. “We decided to act as fast as possible because any attempts at a symmetrical answer would have a very negative effect on tourism in Russia,” she noted.
1 million visits
Last August, President Vladimir Putin instructed that the government study the prospect of simplifying visa procedures for BRICS countries’ nationals – China, Brazil, South Africa and India. He also ordered the ministers to generate ways to enhance tourist trips to Russia in the Russian and foreign media.
As reported by the Russian Union of Tourist Industry, almost 1 million foreign tourists visited Russia in the first 9 months of 2015. Most visitors originated from China, Germany and Turkey but nationals of India and Iran were also expressing heightened interests in travelling to Russia.
