Russian tourists have been fond visitors of the most luxurious and famous resorts all over the world for many years now. They are generally known for spending generous amounts of money and thus injecting a lot of resources into the tourism coffers.
In this context, many tourist destinations count on Russians and their contribution as they represent a large portion of their entire inflow.
Turkey “Saved” by Russian Tourists
One of these countries is, for example, Turkey. According to official data for 2021, almost 4.7 million Russians visited the country last year. The most out of all source markets, with Germany and Ukraine following behind. However, when it comes to data for Istanbul, Russians come third behind Germans and Iranians.
In this sense, reports from local media stating that the flow of tourists from Russia saved the Turkish holiday season do not seem far-fetched in the slightest.
A boom in the Maldives
While Turkey has been a popular destination for Russian travelers for years now, the Maldives are gaining recognition only recently, with many wealthy tourists looking to spend their holidays on the paradise islands.
The popularity of the islands among Russian holidaymakers is clear from the data. Almost 110 thousand foreigners travelled to the Maldives during January and out of these more than 20 thousand were Russian tourists (18.4 %), followed by the British (10,602 tourists) and Indians (9,044).
In general, over the past season, more than 222,000 tourists from Russia visited the islands, which is 2.7 times higher than in 2019. So far this is only enough for second place behind India, but who knows what the future holds.
From Sri Lanka to Mexico
Russians have also conquered Sri Lanka. Since the beginning of the year, almost 10 thousand of them visited the island. This is the most out of all source markets with India taking second place. With regards to annual numbers for 2021, Russia came second, once again behind India.
Moreover, Russian tourists have become leaders in Cuba in 2021. According to the National Center for Statistics and Information of the Republic, by December the island was visited by more than 131,000 tourists from Russia, with Canadian citizens in second place by a wide margin (33,000).
More than 31,000 Russians visited Seychelles in 2021, with Russia becoming the number one tourism source market for the islands for the first time, well ahead of the competition.
Russian inflow also moved from 6th to second place in the United Arab Emirates, while more than 41 thousand citizens visited Mexico during 2021 (+ 50% over 2020), bringing Russia into the top 10 source markets of Caribbean destinations.
Finally, the data from Thailand regarding the end of last year indicate that Russia came in third place in terms of tourist flow, after Germany and Great Britain. In the Dominican Republic Russians represented the second largest tourist group, while in Cyprus and Greece every third tourist was from the Russian Federation.