China Overseas Chinese Network, January 6th. According to the Russian Satellite News Agency, representatives and experts of the tourism departments of various regions in Russia predict that free travel tourists from China will visit Russia in 2021. The launch of the electronic visa mechanism will promote this.
According to data from the Russian Tourism Administration, 1.9 million Chinese citizens visited Russia for tourism purposes in 2019.
In terms of passenger flow to Russia, China ranks third after Kazakhstan and Ukraine.
This record was supposed to be broken in 2020, but the pandemic disrupted the plan and forced mutual travel between the two countries to be suspended.
Zhou Liqun, president of the Russian-Chinese Chamber of Commerce, said in an interview: “From the current situation of the epidemic, I personally have high expectations but a cautious and optimistic attitude towards the development of large-scale tourism from China to Russia next year. Large-scale cross-border tourism mainly depends on the development of the new crown pneumonia epidemic."
Alexander Lviv, a member of the Committee of Russia's "World Without Borders" Tourism Association, believes that Russia-China tourism exchanges will only be possible after the two countries agree on mutual recognition of vaccination certificates or other similar certification mechanisms.
Lviv pointed out: "The main problem at the moment is to form an effective method for the entry of tourists into the international permit."
He said that the main task facing Russia is to prepare for the restart of the tourism industry.
He believes that after the border is opened, Chinese tourists who value quality and service, health, and personalized methods will go to Russia.
Chinese Ambassador to Russia Zhang Hanhui said in an interview: "The recovery of the number of tourists also depends on the effectiveness of our work during the epidemic. Although the epidemic has affected the revenue of the tourism industry in China and Russia, the tourism authorities of the two countries have used this space. “Window Period” actively explores the domestic tourism market and formulates various supporting policies to lay a solid foundation for the faster recovery of the industry after the epidemic and a higher level of cooperation between the two countries. Many tourist associations and institutions in Russia have worked with their Chinese counterparts on the post-epidemic era Tourism cooperation has organized a rich online seminar. I believe that after the epidemic, the number of tourists will quickly recover, and tourism cooperation between the two countries will usher in a broader prospect."
All regions of Russia look forward to Chinese tourists
Alexander Vedensky, chairman of the Russian "World Without Borders" Tourism Association Committee, believes that with the opening of national borders, Chinese tourists will first go to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Primorsky Krai and Irkutsk Oblast, which were most popular with tourists before. .
At the same time, traveling in Russia may have to consider the epidemiology of each specific region.
Zhou Liqun believes that most Chinese tourists will still be mainly concentrated in large and popular tourist cities and tourist routes with developed economies and relatively concentrated tourist resources such as Moscow and St. Petersburg.
However, with the change and improvement of China's tourism concept in recent years, more and more people are keen on themed tours, in-depth tours, and self-guided tours, such as the beautiful Volga River, the magnificent Northern Lights, and many relatively remote and great rivers and mountains. And the cultural landscape will attract more and more attention from Chinese tourists.
St. Petersburg, one of the most popular tourist destinations in Russia for Chinese tourists, has begun to take measures to restore passenger flow from China in November 2020.
The Tourism Development Committee of the St. Petersburg Government of Russia has begun collecting applications to include some regional travel agencies in the list of operators entitled to operate under the visa-free group tour agreement with China.
According to the head of the committee, Sergey Korneyev, most representatives of local companies believe that bilateral mutual tourism will resume no later than the summer of 2021.
He believes that the tourism industry will first resume from official and personal travel, and in the fall of 2021, it will be possible to discuss the issue of resuming large-scale visa-free travel.
According to Maria Badmazirenova, Minister of Tourism of the Russian Republic of Buryatia, the local travel agency expects that the first visa-free tourist groups will only be possible in the summer of 2022.
She revealed: "Travel agencies operating Chinese destinations and turning to domestic tourism during the pandemic are looking forward to the restoration of group visa-free tours, and are currently experiencing a strong shortage of passenger flow."
E-visa stimulates passenger flow
According to Bad Mazirenova, it is possible that in the autumn of 2021, some free-guided tourists from China will begin to travel to Buryatia through electronic visas.
St. Petersburg is also preparing to start a unified electronic visa mechanism for foreigners from January 2021.
Yulia Zaikova, deputy director of the St. Petersburg Tourism Development Committee, stated that the implementation of a unified e-visa from January 1, 2021 will help increase the proportion of independent tourists with a higher ability to pay.
According to Zhou Liqun, unlike group travel, self-guided travel is popular as an emerging travel method, but the inconvenience of applying for a visa has always restricted the pace of some people to travel to Russia. The opening of e-visa will greatly simplify and facilitate The application of visas will be very attractive to Chinese tourists, and it will certainly promote Sino-Russian tourism to a new level.