How many foreign travelers visited Russia in 2018?
M. Lomidze, Executive Director of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) believes that the trend of increasing the tourist flow to our country, which was stimulated by the holding of a sports event - the World Cup, remained until the end of 2018 and is 20% compared to 2017.
Maya Lomidze commented on the pessimistic forecasts of the tourist business that holding the mundial will have a bad impact on classic inbound tourism.
We saw that in the organized segment, which accounts for up to 90% of inbound tourism, significant positive dynamics remained. We expect that by the end of the year we will receive a 20% increase in the flow among the citizens of those countries that indicated the purpose of their visit to tourism. In total, according to preliminary estimates, more than five million foreign tourists visited Russia, the representative of ATOR noted.
Growth in Korea was almost 44% (more than 300 thousand tourists). It is clear that the bulk of tourists came to the regions of the Far East, but the World Cup played a role, as there were a lot of Korean fans, she said. The German market grew by 7% and the Chinese market by 11%.