Almost 580,000 tourists from Russia and China have used the visa-free mechanism since August 1, 2023, when the agreement on visa-free group trips between Russia and China started working again, the Russian Economic Development Ministry press service said on Thursday.
Of all tourists who travelled without visas over the past year, 240,000 are citizens of China, who visited Russia, the press service said. A total of 340,000 Russian tourists visited China in groups.
According to the Russian Economic Development Ministry's forecast, tourism from China to Russia in 2024 may come close to the pre-pandemic level of two million according to an optimistic scenario and may increase by 30%-40% according to a conservative scenario.
