Most Tourists in Russia are from Germany
After two years of decreasing numbers, the amount of tourists visiting Russia rises again. The latest offical statistic shows a rise by 2 % to a total number of 2.433 million foreign visitors to Russia in 2006.
The statistic suggests a changing trend in the travel-business to Russia. In 2004 the numbers had decreased by 9.2 %, in 2005 by 16.6 % in comparison to the previous year respectively.
In 2006 most of the foreign tourists came from Germany, 328.500 in total, increasing by 15.000 regarding the previous year. The nations to follow Germany in numbers are Poland (2nd), the USA (3rd) and China (4th).
The statistic is not based on information provided by the Russian tourism industry but rather by numbers provided by Russia’s borderguards who handle the “immigration cards” obligatorily handed in by foreign nationals when travelling to Russia. The Russian authorities counted only those cards reading “tourism” in the field where travellers have to note down the reason of their journey to Russia.
According to this, also “shoppers” are counted being tourists althought they mostly stay only hours, not days, in Russia. Russia notices quite a few Polish nationals travelling to Russia, particularly to the Kaliningrad area, for shopping purposes. Fuel and alcohol are in Russia significantly cheaper than in Poland. But not only Polish nationals like to shop in Russia, the Vyborg area regularly welcomes significant numbers of Finnish nationals visiting Russia for the very same reason.
The numbers of Polish tourists to Russia rose by 76 % in comparison to 2005. Exact numbers for Finnish travellers are presently not available.
It has also to be mentioned that many business travellers to Russia prefer to apply for tourist visa instead of “business visa” as the procedures required to obtain visa for business purposes significantly differ from those required for tourist visa.
To receive reliable numbers, regarding ”real tourists” to Russia, and to exclude shoppers and illicit workers travelling to Russia “disguising” as tourists, the countries directly bordering Russia should be excluded from the list of countries from which tourists travel to Russia. Having done this, the actual numbers should read
1. Germany 328.500
2. USA 225.000
3. Great Britain 124.000
4. Italy 116.000
5. France 102.500
6. Japan 59.500
7. Spain 54.000
8. Turkey 47.000
9. South Korea 43.000
10. Sweden 31.000
11. The Netherlands 29.000
12. Switzerland 27.500
13. Israel 27.000
Increasing prices in Russia suggest that the tourist numbers in Russia will decrease again in 2007 as the average costs per day, for accomodation (hotel) and catering as well as for the average tourist’s activities (fees for museums, attractions, ect.) sum up to 200 to 250 Euros (265 to 331 US $) per day.
This blog entry is based on an article of the German Internet newspaper “Russland Aktuell” which researched the topic and provided the numbers. Their article may be found here.
