OREANDA-NEWS  Turkey, Egypt and Thailand remain the most popular visa-free countries among Russians, Dmitry Gorin, Vice President of the Russian Union of Travel Industry.

"Russians can go on vacation without a visa to a number of countries. The most popular destinations are Turkey, Egypt and Thailand," Gorin said. He also noted that it is possible to visit Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Serbia without a visa. Trips to the Maldives, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela are also popular.In mid-December, Gorin stated that the tourist flow to Turkey from Russia, subject to an increase in air transportation, could amount to about 7 million people in 2023 against about 5 million people by the end of 2022.

At the beginning of December, ATOR reported that following the results of 11 months of 2022, Thailand received 256.5 thousand tourists from the Russian Federation. The indicator exceeded the estimates given by experts earlier, but is inferior to the pre-pandemic volumes - about 1.5 million Russian tourists per year. The association also referred to the forecasts of the Ministry of Tourism and Sports of Thailand, according to which from January to March 2023, Thailand can receive more than 377.5 thousand tourists from Russia.

In addition, ATOR indicated in early November that the increase in tourist traffic to Egypt in January-September 2022 was 2.2 times - 609.9 thousand trips. In 2021, the tourist flow from Russia to Egypt, according to the association, was at the level of slightly less than 700 thousand trips.