Russian Tourism Market Continues Strong Growth

According to figures recently compiled by the Russian Institute of Statistics, the Russian outbound travel market continues to grow. Over 20 million people travelled for business or leisure in 2002 which represents an annual increase of 13%. Greece is one of the top 20 (13th) countries for outbound travel from Russia.

Russia has a population of 144 million and has the world’s seventh largest population. The value of the Russian consumer market is estimated at $240 billion annually and is growing by 13-15% per year.

Stanislava Blagoeva-Duschell, director of MITT, the Moscow International Travel & Tourism Exhibition, which takes place March 24-27 next year, commented that “the statistics were very promising and that Russia was performing well, particularly at the top end of the market.”

The Mediterranean area is showing good growth and short haul destinations are much in demand.  One other area that showed a huge increase in traffic was the United Arab Emirates which will be a key area to focus on in the coming year.

The show report from MITT 2003 was extremely promising and reflects the strength of the Russian travel market in general.

Mrs Blagoeva tells us that “the MITT show report met all expectations, despite a difficult period politically.  Many European countries did not meet their outbound targets but Russia continues to perform extremely well.”