“A ground-breaking year for outbound tourism” – that’s how Maya Lomidze, Director of the Russian Tour Operators Association (ATOR), described 2017.
It certainly was a success, with outbound trips made by Russian citizens rising 25% on 2016’s figures. In total, 40 million foreign tourist trips were made by Russian tourists in 2017, according to Rosstat.
These impressive results reflect the stabilisation of the rouble, aided by deferred demand, an extended flight programme, and an increasing number of destinations available visa-free.

There are already positive signs for continued growth in 2018:
•Flight comparison website Biletix is reporting an increase of 35% in sales of charter flights between January-March 2018 for the summer season
•Demand for package tours with children over the spring school holidays rose 40%, according to bookings website Sletat
•Major tour operator Tez Tour opened its ski booking season for 2018/19 earlier than ever before – in April
With the market bouncing back, now is the time to take advantage of this upward trend.

Russia’s leading travel and tourism exhibition, MITT, is back for 2019 and is your chance to put your destination or travel services in front of key market players. Every year, MITT attracts over 22,700 travel industry professionals – travel agents, tour operators, airlines, and others that influence where Russian tourists spend their holidays.