Feature

Outbound statistics for the 6 months of 2012

According to the latest figures by Rosstat, a total of 19.8 million Russians went abroad during Jan-June 2012 (+9%), 6.5 million travelled for leisure purposes, a 7% increase on 2011. The fastest growing destinations (for leisure purposes only) were: Mexico (+173%), Vietnam (+108%), Slovakia (+97%), Tunisia (+92%), Hong Kong (+92%), Romania (+84%), Japan (+62%), Norway (+53%) and UAE (+41%).
Figures for several destinations showing a decline, but these figures are considered to be somewhat contradictory by some national tourism boards and TO selling these destinations. For eg, according to Rosstat, Finland was down by 40% for leisure travel, but 60% up for total travel numbers (including business and VFF). This seems very strange to many TO, and the NTO of Finland for eg noted 20% increase in Russian visitors in 2012 and received a total of 358,000 Russian visitors so far.
Another example is Turkey: Rosstat noted a 17% decrease, but the Turkish Tourism Ministry says the Russian market was only down by 1.5%. Other destinations with a decrease in visitor numbers from Russia, according to Rosstat, were Sweden (-42%), China (-9.4%), Lithuania (-25%), Israel, Indonesia and Hungary (-7% each).

The most popular leisure destination is still Turkey. Other destinations in the Top 10 for travel for leisure purposes include: Egypt (+65%), Spain (+23%), Italy and Greece (+1% each).