Feature

According to Rostourism, over 11 million Russians travelled abroad for leisure purposes in the 9 months of 2011, which is a 16% increase compared to the same period of last year. This is an impressive growth rate but less than in 2010, when it was +34%. The total no. of Russians travelling abroad from January to September 2011 (including business trips and family visits) is 34 million. The Top 4 destinations are Finland, Turkey China and Egypt.

However, traffic to Finland includes lots of cross border traffic for shopping and short stay from the neighbours in St-Petersburg, which is driving distance from Finland. China's figures also contain a large number of cross border traffic, especially from the Far East, whereas Turkey and Egypt remain pure leisure destinations. Egypt lost 40% of its Russian arrivals due to the political instability in the country in 2011. Other destinations with a substantial decrease in overall traffic (leisure and business together) are Tunisia (-18%) and Japan (-22%). For Japan, the loss of pure leisure traffic was twice more -52%. The leader in terms of growth is Thailand (+106%), which became the main alternative to Egypt - along with Dubai (+30%). Despite of the growth in  numbers travelling to Thailand, many tour operators complain that the profitability of selling package tours to Thailand, is falling, due to heavy price damping by major players.

Other destinations with high growth were Spain (+53%), Greece (+47%), Cyprus (+42%) and Cuba (+56%). Spain has grown more than twice due to the introduction of multi entry long term visas and opening of many new visa centers across Russia, as well as the increased direct air connection from many Russian regional cities. Greece has also opened more visa centers and 2011 saw a further increase in charter traffic to Greece. Turkey is the 3rd destination in terms of visitor numbers, but actually still the no. 1 destination for real tourism traffic, grew by a more moderate 9% in total and by 14% for leisure travel. One more destination with a record growth is Sweden (+73%), that's mainly due to the launch of the direct ferry connection between St-Petersburg and Stockholm. Among the secondary destinations, which are not in the Top 30 yet, the Dominican Republic showed an impressive 65% growth, and Maldives and Vietnam increased by 46% each. Vietnam, Cuba and the Dominican Republic have all become more accessible due an increase in charter and regular flights.

	Jan-Sept 2011	Jan-Sept 2010	% change of 2011 compared to 2010
Total for all destinations	34 010 028	30 160 258	13
	11 366 224	9 785 811	16

Source: Rostourism, 2011

Source: Rostourism, 2011