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Agence France-Presse

Fancy a tank ride in the snow, then a night in a Tsarist-era palace?
With ambitious plans to become one of the world’s top 10 travel destinations, Russia is offering tours off the beaten track and lifting visa restrictions to attract more visitors.
A year after it successfully hosted the World Cup, the ex-Soviet country is looking for new ways to attract international visitors with the goal of more than doubling tourism revenues to US$25 billion by 2035.
“Young people will now be able to see Russia in a way their parents could not,” says Maya Lomidze, executive director of the Association of Russian Tour Operators.




Russia’s rich cultural heritage and its spectacular scenery, ranging from subtropical Black Sea resorts to Siberia’s Lake Baikal and the volcanoes of Kamchatka, make the country an obvious draw for visitors.
But the difficulty of obtaining visas, a lack of contemporary-style accommodation and transport links outside the main cities still put off many visitors.
The good, bad and ugly sides to being a tourist in Moscow
Nearly 25 million tourists visited Russia last year, making it the world’s 16th most popular destination, according to the World Tourism Organisation. They largely came from the ex-Soviet bloc and China.
During last summer’s World Cup, Russia offered visa-free entry for international fans and Lomidze says the tourism sector had hoped for a substantial boost from the tournament played in 11 Russian cities.
“But the effect of the World Cup was practically reduced to zero by the eternal problems with visas,” she says.

Apparently aware of the problem, President Vladimir Putin has ordered the government to introduce electronic visas, which are free of charge and issued quickly, for citizens of a number of countries.
Electronic visas will come into force in October for stays of up to eight days in the former imperial capital of Saint Petersburg and the surrounding region, though Russia has not yet said which countries’ citizens can apply.
From July, there has been a similar deal for travellers from 53 countries visiting the Western exclave of Kaliningrad, formerly part of Germany.
How Russia’s ‘red tourism’ is luring wealthy Chinese visitors
Since 2017, nationals of 18 countries have been eligible to receive free e-visas to visit Russia’s far east, including the Kamchatka region where tourists can ski and trek in pristine landscapes.
Tour operators are seeking to diversify, luring visitors with Arctic tours featuring reindeer herders, rides in Soviet-era tanks or a night at a palace that belonged to Peter the Great.
But Russia as a whole only spends around €1 million (US$1.1 million) per year on promoting itself to visitors, according to estimates from the Association of Russian Tour Operators.

The country needs to invest billions of dollars in infrastructure and new facilities for travellers, but equally crucial is a major publicity campaign to improve its image, tarnished by the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria and spying scandals, experts say.
Unlike Russia, the USSR made concerted efforts to lure foreign tourists, with posters and magazines extolling the thrill of travels through the steppes of Central Asia and the Caucasus Mountains.
“First and foremost, the Soviet Union’s draw was in its sense of forbiddenness, a bit like North Korea now,” says Andrei Sivitsky, deputy director at Intourist, which was founded 90 years ago as the state travel agency.

Juliette Spigolis, a retired French engineer from Nice, is revisiting Russia for an epic bus trip that began in Brittany in northwestern France and will end in the Pacific port of Vladivostok.
She said that she could not find a map of Moscow on sale when she first visited 35 years ago, as a result of the secrecy surrounding nearly every aspect of Soviet life.
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“At the time, foreigners got just as many stares from the Soviets as they did from us,” says the retiree as she tries to make her way through a crowd of Chinese tourists milling around the Red Square.
Spigolis says she is delighted to discover a new “globalised” Russia but complains that outside popular tourist areas many signs are still only in Cyrillic, making life more difficult for those like her who are “eager to discover this vast country”.


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Russia eases visa restrictions to attract more tourists, with goal of being in world’s top 10 travel destinations

Russia has ambitious plans to become one of the world’s top 10 travel destinations. Here a woman poses next to a tank at the Volgograd Panorama Museum. Photo: AFP

(FILES) In this file photo taken on April 19, 2019 a woman takes a selfie in front of the Kremlin and St.Basil Cathedral at sunset in Moscow. (Photo by Mladen ANTONOV / AFP)

(FILES) In this file photo taken on January 13, 2019 This long exposure photo shows people riding a reindeer-drawn sleigh in Tsaritsyno park in Moscow. (Photo by Yuri KADOBNOV / AFP)

(FILES) In this file photo taken on October 11, 2016 people enter Soviet state founder Vladimir Lenin's mausoleum while visiting Red Square in Moscow. (Photo by Natalia KOLESNIKOVA / AFP)

Chef turns Russian embargo on food imports to advantage at Birch, his St Petersburg restaurant

Chef Hezret-Arslan Berdiev's marble beef tataki, pickled beetroot, truffle pesto and ponzu, on the menu at his restaurant Birch in St Petersburg, Russia.

Tomato-nectarine-olives, The dish Chef Berdiev prepared for Gourmet Days, St Petersburg Evening Gastronomic Experience.

Chef Hezret-Arslan Berdiev's Prawn wonton, crab bisque, coconut espuma.  Berdiev left his homeland of Turkmenistan in 2005 to study economics in St Petersburg. Still based in the Russian city, his award-winning restaurant Birch is paying dividends - attracting diners from around the world and booked up weeks in advance.[09JULY2019 FEATURES]

Chef Hezret-Arslan Berdiev left his homeland of Turkmenistan in 2005 to study economics in St Petersburg. Still based in the Russian city, his award-winning restaurant Birch is paying dividends - attracting diners from around the world and booked up weeks in advance.[09JULY2019 FEATURES]

Chef Hezret-Arslan Berdiev's award-winning restaurant Birch, St Petersburg.  Chef Hezret-Arslan Berdiev left his homeland of Turkmenistan in 2005 to study economics in St Petersburg. Still based in the Russian city, his award-winning restaurant Birch is paying dividends - attracting diners from around the world and booked up weeks in advance.[09JULY2019 FEATURES]

Chef Hezret-Arslan Berdiev making his tomato dish. Berdiev left his homeland of Turkmenistan in 2005 to study economics in St Petersburg. Still based in the Russian city, his award-winning restaurant Birch is paying dividends - attracting diners from around the world and booked up weeks in advance.[09JULY2019 FEATURES]

Furry head of 32,000-year-old Ice Age wolf found in Russian Arctic

The head of the ancient wolf discovered in the northern Siberian region of Yakutia. Photo: AFP

A handout picture taken on September 6, 2018 and provided by the Yakutia Academy of Sciences shows the head of an ancient wolf, discovered in the permafrost on the bank of the Tirekhtyakh river in the northern Siberian region of Yakutia. - Japanese scientists helping their Russian colleagues performed a series of tests and determined its age as approximately 32,000 years. (Photo by HO / YAKUTIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / YAKUTIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES / HO" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS

Lifestyle

Travel & Leisure

Arctic tours featuring reindeer herders, rides in Soviet-era tanks or a night at a palace that belonged to Peter the Great – country diversifies its offering
It hopes to more than double tourism revenue to US$25 billion by 2035, but for now lacks contemporary accommodation or convenient transport outside big cities


With ambitions to become one of the world’s top 10 travel destinations, Russia is offering tours off the beaten track and making it easier to get tourist visas. But it will need to make big improvements in infrastructure to reach its goal.


Russia