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Tourism in Russia plummeted in 2022. Only 200,100 foreigners visited Russia in 2022, a drop of 96.1% from pre-pandemic/pre-Russian invasion of Ukraine years.[1] Earlier, Russia had seen rapid growth since the late Soviet times, first domestic tourism and theninternational tourism as well.[2] Russia had formerly been among themost popular tourist destinations in the world, though it fell off that list in 2022. Not includingCrimea, the countrycontains 23 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, while more are on UNESCO's tentative lists.[3]
Tourist routes in Russia include a travel around theGolden Ring of ancient cities, cruises on the rivers including theVolga, and long journeys on theTrans-Siberian Railway. Diverse regions and ethnic cultures of Russia offer different foods and souvenirs, and show a variety of traditions, includingRussianMaslenitsa,TatarSabantuy, orSiberianshamanist rituals. In 2013, Russia was visited by 33 million tourists, making it the ninth-most visited country in the world and the seventh-most visited in Europe.[4]
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After theRussian invasion of Ukraine, several governments, including the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada have issued travel advisories calling on their nationals to avoid travel to Russia.[5] For the same reason, airline routes between Russia and Western countries were closed, and supply of spare parts for some domestic airline traffic inside Russia became a challenge.[6]
Only 200,100 foreigners visited Russia in 2022, a drop of 96.1 percent from the pre-pandemic period.[1] Most of Europe closed its airspace to Russian planes a few days after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.[1] Foreign-issued Visa and Mastercard cards no longer work in Russia, further impacting tourism.[1]


Tourist destinations in Russia include Saint Petersburg (which appeared in the list of top visited cities of Europe in 2010) and Moscow, the current and the former capitals of the country. Moscow and Saint Petersburg museums such asHermitage andTretyakov Gallery, theaters includingBolshoi andMariinsky, churches such asSaint Basil's Cathedral,Cathedral of Christ the Saviour,Saint Isaac's Cathedral andChurch of the Savior on Blood, fortifications such as theKremlin andPeter and Paul Fortress, squares such asRed Square andPalace Square, and streets such asTverskaya andNevsky Prospect. Palaces and parks are found in the formerimperial residences in the suburbs of Moscow (Kolomenskoye,Tsaritsyno) and Saint Petersburg (Peterhof,Strelna,Oranienbaum,Gatchina,Pavlovsk Palace,Tsarskoye Selo). Moscow contains Soviet-era buildings along withmodern skyscrapers, while Saint Petersburg has classical architecture, rivers, channels andbridges.[citation needed]

Nizhny Novgorod is the capital of theVolga region. Nizhny Novgorod is divided into two parts by theOka River. TheUpper City is its historical part. TheLower City is its industrial and commercial part. Here are theFair, the oldSormovo and Kanavino,GAZ and Sotsgorod (the so-called "city in the city"), therailway terminal, and theairport.[citation needed]
Kazan, the capital ofTatarstan, shows a mix of Christian Russian andMuslimTatar cultures.[citation needed]
Sakha Republic proposes to use former forced labour camps as a tourist attraction.[7] Poles visit places of Communist crimes, e.g., of theKatyn massacre andSolovetsky Islands.[8][9]
Russia is home to museums that include theTretyakov Gallery, theKremlin Armoury and theState Historical Museum in Moscow, theHermitage Museum, and theRussian Museum in St Petersburg, theKazan Kremlin in Kazan, etc.[citation needed] Russia has museums related to its literary and classical music heritage, such asYasnaya Polyana associated withLeo Tolstoy, theMikhaylovskoye Museum Reserve associated withAlexander Pushkin, theDostoyevsky Museum, theTchaikovsky State House-Museum, and theRimsky-Korsakov Apartment and Museum.[citation needed]
Museums related to Russia's military history and military hardware include theCentral Museum of the Great Patriotic War onPoklonnaya Hill, theCentral Naval Museum in St Petersburg, theBattle of Stalingrad Museum in Volgograd.[citation needed] Museums related to science and technology include thePolytechnic Museum of Moscow, and theMemorial Museum of Cosmonautics.
The GULAG History Museum tells the story about theGULAG camps inSiberia.[10]
In Russia, Nature Reserves have history and it has its own word of definition Zapovedniks (Russian:заповедник, plural заповедники) more than100 Nature Reserves exist in Russia and more than50 National Parks.
National parks and sanctuaries of Russia include theBaikal Nature Reserve, theAltai Nature Reserve, theLazovsky Nature Reserve, theKedrovaya Pad Nature Reserve, theCuronian Spit National Park, theValdaysky National Park, theBaikal-Lena Nature Reserve, theIlmen Nature Reserve.
TheSeven Wonders of Russia includeLake Baikal,Valley of Geysers,Manpupuner rock formations,Kizhi Island, andMount Elbrus.
Other areas includeRepublic of Adygea whereFisht Mountain is located, Chechnya Republic whereLake Kezenoyam is located.[11]
Mineral spa resorts have been established across Russia in such regions asKamchatka Krai,Altai Krai,Krasnodar Krai,Stavropol Krai,North Caucasus region of Russia.[12] Some cities have natural hot spring water during winter and some of Russian cities are called Russian Spa town, includingPyatigorsk,Yessentuki,Kislovodsk,Zheleznovodsk andMineralnye Vody; these towns are jointly known as theCaucasian Mineral Waters.
Russia has one of the largest water borders in world, but only the more Southern regions are suitable for resort tourism. The warm subtropical Black Sea coast of Russia is the site for some seaside resorts such asSochi andTuapse.[citation needed]
A vast part of Russian territory is inSubarctic climate andhumid continental climate, and that is why it is cold. In addition, Russia is mountainous in regions likeNorthern Caucasus,Altai Krai and Kamchatka Peninsula. The highest peak in Europe, Mount Elbrus, is in Russia, which makes Russia a place for winter sports.Ski resorts are in Russia. A ski resort in Russia is Sochi and itsKrasnaya Polyana. Other ski resorts in Russia areDombay inKarachay–Cherkessia inNorthern Caucasus.[13]
Russia is a destination for medical tourism. A factor in its popularity was the relatively weak rublepost-2014, which saw the industry grow from some 110,000 clients in 2017[14] to some 728,000 clients in the first five months of 2020.[15] Stomatology is the most used (44% of patients), genecology and urology follow (25% taken together), the other services are plastic surgery (10%), ophthalmology (10%), and cardiology (5%).[14] Most clients come fromthe CIS states, where receiving high-tech medical assistance can be problematic, particularly from Central Asia, which amounts for 62% of all patients; but also from Eastern Europe (32%), South and East Asia (5%).[16] In addition to price and accessibility of complex manipulations, the difference in regulations between Russia and the clients' own nations is a driving factor for receiving care in Russia: for instance,in vitro fertilization is illegal in China, but legal in Russia.[15]
Religious tourism has two main subtypes: pilgrimage, as travel done for religious or spiritual purposes, and the viewing of religious monuments and artefacts, as a kind of sightseeing. The former is relatively insignificant for the Russian tourism industry, amounting for approximately 100 thousands pilgrims yearly.[17] The latter is more important.[citation needed] Orthodox Christianity being the most common religion in Russia, it also accounts for most religious monuments across the country.[citation needed]
Multiple pieces of Islamic religious architectural art are scattered across the country, from mosques tomaqāms. They are mostly clustered in the historically Muslim regions.[citation needed]
Russia has a Buddhist minority, notably in Kalmykia.[18]
In 2013, 27 million international tourists arrived in Russia, generating US$11.2 billion in international tourism revenue for the country.[19][failed verification] Including domestic and international tourism, the industry directly contributed RUB860 billion to the Russian GDP and supported 966,500 jobs in the country.[20]
However, only 200,100 foreigners visited Russia in 2022, a drop of 96.1 percent.[1]
According to theBorder Service of the Federal Security Service and theFederal State Statistics Service, most visitors arriving to Russia were from the following countries of nationality:[21][22]
| 2019 | |
| 2018 | |
| 2017 | |
| 2016 | |
| 2015 | |
| 2014 | |
| 2013 | |
| 2012 | |
| 2011 | |
| 2010 | |
| 2009 | |
| 2008 | |
| 2007 | 22,908,625 |
Visitor statistics 2024-2021
| Country | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3,407,706 | 3,163,214 | |||
| 3,360,423 | 3,109,445 | |||
| 1,701,543 | 2,153,956 | |||
| 1,695,873 | 794,387 | |||
| 1,195,392 | 1,140,239 | |||
| 718,101 | 764,766 | |||
| 621,015 | 616,659 | |||
| 533,020 | 476,743 | |||
| 519,591 | 414,677 | |||
| 367,451 | 311,479 |
| Nationality | Total (includes all types of purposes of visits) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | |
| Stateless persons | |||||
| 24,662 | |||||
| Total | |||||
| Nationality | Total (includes all types of purposes of visits) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | |
| 4,198,030 | ||||||
| 2,747,358 | ||||||
| 1,584,086 | ||||||
| 394,872 | ||||||
| 1,012,621 | ||||||
| 747,640 | ||||||
| 830,160 | ||||||
| 979,778 | ||||||
| 459,040 | ||||||
| 552,909 | ||||||
| 988,084 | ||||||
| 611,367 | ||||||
| 157,367 | ||||||
| 259,191 | ||||||
| 52,289 | ||||||
| 474,949 | ||||||
| 569,300 | ||||||
| Stateless persons | 679,757 | |||||
| 196,704 | ||||||
| 760,728 | ||||||
| 262,060 | ||||||
| 198,002 | ||||||
| 194,248 | ||||||
| 212,847 | ||||||
| 100,291 | ||||||
| 81,385 | ||||||
| 90,622 | ||||||
| 33,409 | ||||||
| 110,601 | ||||||
| 53,364 | ||||||
| 78,188 | ||||||
| 47,939 | ||||||
| 24,568 | ||||||
| 80,720 | ||||||
| 50,823 | ||||||
| 67,606 | ||||||
| 35,017 | ||||||
| 45,340 | ||||||
| 20,576 | ||||||
| 40,565 | ||||||
| 44,964 | ||||||
| 48,559 | ||||||
| 33,396 | ||||||
| 54,253 | ||||||
| 30,583 | ||||||
| 38,446 | ||||||
| 21,950 | ||||||
| 33,571 | ||||||
| 15,192 | ||||||
| 17,884 | ||||||
| 20,736 | ||||||
| 13,767 | ||||||
| 21,167 | ||||||
| | 18,512 | |||||
| 14,448 | ||||||
| 9,044 | ||||||
| 18,434 | ||||||
| 4,053 | ||||||
| Total | ||||||
Most electronic visas were issued for citizens of the following countries (top-10):
| Country | 2024 | 2023[Note 1] |
|---|---|---|
| 311,839 | 86,619 | |
| 63,218 | 8,915 | |
| 52,425 | 11,335 | |
| 42,202 | 9,865 | |
| 32,145 | 9,456 | |
| 25,404 | 13,318 | |
| 19,410 | 5,137 | |
| 16,982 | 3,924 | |
| 16,973 | 3,276 | |
| 10,121 | 3,107 | |
| Total | 670,947 | 170,104 |
Most visas were issued in the following countries:
| Country | Number of visas issued in | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | |
| 58,953 | 410,780 | 360,582 | 336,423 | 324,959 | 299,791 | |
| 41,280 | 453,338 | 406,831 | 371,489 | 339,030 | 357,040 | |
| 34,162 | 83,169 | 81,177 | 79,898 | 45,209 | 33,698 | |
| 27,059 | 172,870 | 146,491 | 145,576 | 131,229 | 119,314 | |
| 20,770 | 92,573 | 88,290 | 96,246 | 93,169 | 87,863 | |
| 18,272 | 162,529 | 139,797 | 129,124 | 129,038 | 117,123 | |
| 16,736 | 106,250 | 98,936 | 95,630 | 94,682 | 85,974 | |
| 14,271 | 110,480 | 105,157 | 108,792 | 116,462 | 112,655 | |
| 11,295 | 78,727 | 79,082 | 74,382 | 77,574 | 70,328 | |
| 10,535 | 67,666 | 62,840 | 59,187 | 54,885 | 43,038 | |
| Total | 452 161 | 3,090,538 | 2,758,893 | 2,687,146 | 2,505,457 | 2,283,850 |