The Chinese recruited the first group of tourists to Russia: they will arrive on February 23

Russian travel agencies specializing in inbound tourism were expecting guests from China immediately after they opened their borders on February 6. However, the first group of tourists from the Celestial Empire has gathered only now and arrives in the Russian Federation on February 23. Moreover, some on the receiving side have already realized that it will not work to earn extra money on the Chinese, as in pre-pandemic times. As well as on the majority of Russian guests from other countries, which are very few. We found out what a foreign tourist is like in Russia now, and what to expect from him.

The first Chinese tourist group in the last three years consists of 34 residents of the city of Guangzhou, mostly pensioners. The receiving party claims that their clients were so eager to go to Russia that so many people came to Russia in just two days. Chinese tourists themselves say that when planning an expensive trip abroad, they try to gather a larger company even before purchasing a tour.

The travel agency, of course, will be lucky with a smaller composition, but the smaller the group, the more expensive the trip for everyone. Traveling to Russia is already expensive (a week in terms of yuan to rubles costs from 200 thousand per person), so it is unprofitable for the Chinese to travel to the Russian Federation for less than two dozen. Guangzhou residents arriving on the Russian holiday will stay in the Russian Federation until March 2, visiting both capitals, a ballet and driving along the Golden Ring.

– Initially, they wanted to launch a mutual visa-free exchange with China from February 6, – answers the question why the Chinese did not rush to us immediately after the Celestial Empire removed the pandemic castle from its borders, the capital’s guide-interpreter with Chinese. – In China, they were waiting for “visa-free” from the Russian Federation, in our country they were waiting for them – and no one waited. Then, it seems, the start of mutual visa-free travel was postponed on February 16, but again nothing came of it, and then the first group that gathered was simply given Russian visas, as before the pandemic.

– And why does the Association of Sinologists, recruiting guides and translators, say that there will be no “Chinese season”?

– Because the Chinese arrive not only with their own guides and translators, but even with their own driver.

– Was it always like that?

– No, before the pandemic, “illegal” guides, who were hired by agencies and travel agencies, through acquaintances, also earned on large Chinese groups. Although, of course, work is done with all groups before departure so that they do not trust anyone who offers their services already on the spot, bypassing the travel agency.

But for the most part, it depends on the people. Younger tourists bought amber from their hands, and translators were found right at the hotel, as it is cheaper. But if a group of pensioners of the old school is traveling, then it’s definitely with their own “samovar” – a guide, translator, driver, and even with a cook and a party worker. For them, it means safety. Even before the pandemic, such a contingent carried everything with them. In 2019, the Chinese also brought buses for their tourists from China.

According to compatriots who know Chinese travel business well from the inside, the fact is that before the pandemic, Chinese travel agencies specializing in receiving their fellow citizens worked in Russia. They took over the entire organization of their vacation, as a result of which the money spent by Chinese tourists in Russia was mostly returned to the Celestial Empire: Chinese groups were provided with Chinese guides, settled in certain hotels and taken to restaurants and shops, the owners or co-owners of which, officially or not. very, were citizens of the PRC.

These companies have gone through the pandemic. And now, when there are no “relative” hosts, you have to drag everything with you. But at least in terms of the occupancy of ordinary “non-Chinese” hotels, the hopes of our tourism industry will come true, because its representatives have repeatedly stated that “in the context of the almost complete absence of foreign tourists, the restoration of tourist ties with China is very important.” First of all, for hotels in Moscow and St. Petersburg, which have been chronically underloaded in recent years (according to the Moscow government, the average occupancy of capital hotels in 2022 increased by only two points compared to the previous year – from 58 to 60%, and in the high season, revenues Moscow hotels decreased by 14%.

According to the statistics of the Border Guard Service of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, the number of foreign tourists in the Russian Federation has been decreasing every year since 2020 (at that time, 93% fewer tourists entered Russia than in 2019). In 2021, the decline continued and amounted to 14%.

And in 2022, the Russian Federation accepted 205.1 thousand foreign citizens who arrived for the purpose of tourism, which is 28.8% less than in 2021.

Of those who still continue to visit the Russian Federation, German citizens are in the first place (in 2022, 25.3 thousand Germans came to us, a year earlier there were 33.4% more).

In second place are the Turks, although there are fewer of them (22.6 thousand, which is 2.5% less than a year ago).

The only foreign tourists we have increased are citizens of the Islamic Republic of Iran. In 2022, they visited us in the amount of 14.6 thousand people, which is 25 times more than a year earlier.

The top ten fans of Russia also include citizens of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Serbia, Cuba and India.

“You won’t make money on all these guests,” experts on inbound tourism state gloomily. – Some of them are guest workers entering on tourist visas, going to earn extra money, or foreign relatives of Russians. In any case, these are not enthusiastic tour groups who came to spend money on vacation. All hope was on the Chinese, let’s see how it will come true.