Page 218 - RusRPTAug24

Last month, Vladimir attracted the most tourists, whose popularity grew by almost 30%. The top 3 cities of the Golden Ring in terms of tourist flow also included Sergiev Posad (growth by 23%) and Yaroslavl (19%). Suzdal showed the highest growth rate - the number of tourists visiting it increased by 53%. Tourists of the Golden Ring also spent 83% more gigabytes than a year earlier. Voice traffic grew by 9%, with 23% of all traffic coming from Ivanovo.
Of the cities of the Silver Necklace, the most tourists were attracted by Kaliningrad (growth of 26% year-on-year), Vologda (19%) and Veliky Novgorod (11%). Tourist Internet traffic in the cities of the Silver Necklace increased by 95%, and voice traffic by 20%, with Kaliningrad leading in both indicators.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is satisfied with growth of trade between Russia and China and he also states an increase in tourist flow between the two countries. Putin considers it a remarkable thing that "humanitarian exchanges expand in all areas, and mutual tourist flow is on the rise." "Last year it exceeded 1.2mn trips, whereas in January-May of this year more than 260,000 people used this channel within the visa-free group tourism mechanism only," he said.
Russian tourists cancel Crimea holidays en-masse, Ukrainian military intelligence says. Russian tourists have canceled summer holiday bookings in occupied Crimea en-masse, amid concerns over the "difficult security situation," Ukraine's military intelligence (HUR) said on July 19.
Around 1.7mn Russian tourists will visit Thailand by the end of this year,
which will be the repetition of the highest figure registered as of 2013 year-end, general representative of the Russian operator Tez Tour in Southeast Asia Andrey Snetkov told TASS. The visa-free regime for sixty days is in effect for Russian citizens when visiting Thailand since May 1, 2024. It will be in effect until July 31 inclusive. According to the intergovernmental agreement on rejection of visa formalities in mutual trips, the visa-free period of stay will then be limited by thirty days.
Thai economy received the income of $2.5bn from Russian tourists visiting the country as of 2023 year-end, the Tourism Authority of Thailand told TASS. "As regards incomes received from Russian tourists in 2023, when 1.48mn Russians visited Thailand, they amount to 93.3bn baht ($2.5bn)," a spokesman of the Authority said. Total earnings of the Thai tourist sector last year, when the country hosted more than 28mn foreign guests, stood at 1.2 trillion baht ($33bn). Thailand expects 40mn foreign tourists coming this year, which may bring revenues of 2.3 trillion baht ($60bn). The Thai Ministry of Tourism and Sports showed interest in increasing the number of charter flights to set the air service with new cities in potential markets, including China and Russia. According to official statistics, 940,000 Russians
218 RUSSIA Country Report August 2024 www.intellinews.com