Despite the increased costs and longer travel times, Russian tourists have not lost their travel enthusiasm. Many Russians are willing to accept the more difficult conditions to visit European countries. In particular, the travel industry is reporting a significant increase in bookings at popular destinations such as Spain, France and Italy, according to the newspaper Wedomosti. According to leading online travel platforms like OneTwoTrip and Yandex Reisen, the number of hotel bookings for these destinations has increased sharply in recent months.
Bookings in Italy for the spring season of 2025 have risen by a third compared to the previous year, by 65 percent in Spain and by 45 percent in France. Notably, the enormous increase in bookings at OneTwoTrip, where bookings in Italy have risen by 6.5 times, in France by 7.5 times and in Spain by 7.6 times, compared to the previous year.
Italy has now taken a share of 9.8 percent of all foreign trips by Russian travelers, a significant increase compared to the spring of 2024. This trend shows that traditional European destinations are once again becoming popular, even if travel times and costs are not comparable to those before the Ukraine war.
Among the most popular destinations in 2024 were Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. During the extended New Year’s holidays, the tourist flow to Thailand increased significantly, with a 35 percent rise in the number of tourists, according to the Tourism Ministry, to almost four million tourists.
Overall, the Russian tourism sector is experiencing an increase. In 2024, over 29 million Russians went on foreign trips, of which 11.5 million were of a tourist nature, according to the Russian Border Service. Although direct flights between Russia and the EU have been suspended since 2022, many tourists are using transit connections through countries like Turkey or Serbia, which are not involved in the western sanctions.
The growing number of tourists is also facilitated by the stabilization of visa issuance. In the past year, around half a million Schengen visas for tourist purposes were issued to Russian citizens.
However, the Russian domestic tourism is also developing very positively. In 2024, the domestic tourism reached a historic high of around 92 million trips. From May to September, three-quarters of all trips with overnight stays were at hotels and resorts. Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Kazan and Yekaterinburg were the most popular destinations, according to an Ozon Travel representative.