Citing the Border Service of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB), the Association of Tour Operators of Russia reported on February 8 that Tajik nationals made 1.6 million trips to the Russian Federation last year.
Tajikistan is among top ten countries in terms of trips to Russia for any purpose (tourism, work, studying, private purposes and so forth).
Among the top three countries are Kazakhstan (2.5 million trips), Ukraine (2.4 million trips), and Uzbekistan (2.1 million trips).
They are followed by Tajikistan (1.6 million trips), Kyrgyzstan (866,200 trips), Abkhazia (663,100 trips), Armenia (491,600 trips), Azerbaijan (327,900 trips), Belarus (289,300 trips), and Turkiye (198,600 trips).
Last year, foreign nationals reportedly made 13.1 million trips to the Russia Federation for different purposes last year, which is more compared to the pandemic years of 2020 (9.7 million) and 2021 (12.1 million).
However it is fewer almost by 20 million or 2.5 times compared to the pre-pandemic year of 2019.
Last year, 200,100 foreigners reportedly visited Russia as tourists, which 4.9 million or 25.5 times fewer than in the pre-pandemic year of 2019 and even less compared to the pandemic years of 2020 (335,800) and 2020 (288,300).
Last year, Germany, Turkiye and Iran were among the top three countries in terms of the number of tourism – 25,400, 22,600 and 14,600, respectively.
They are followed by Kazakhstan – 13,300 tourism trips and Cuba – 11,300 tourism trips.
Russia’s tourism industry cratered in 2022, especially among organized tours, as foreign travelers are staying away following the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
Moscow Times reported in December last year that Sergei Romashkin, the head of Russian tour operator Delfin, estimated that organized tours to Russia have dropped 90% due in part to the negative image of Russia since the invasion of Ukraine, the ban of Visa and MasterCard use in the country, and Russia’s restrictive visa program.
Meanwhile, the popularity of Tajikistan as tourist destination for Russian nationals grew more than two times last year. Russian tourists beat their own five-year record, making trips to Tajikistan in 2022 more than three times (212 percent) than average over the previous years.
