Almost 400,000 tourists arrive in Russia on electronic, group visas over 10 months - Economic Development Ministry

MOSCOW. June 7 (Interfax) - Some 400,000 tourists have arrived in Russia from China and Iran over ten months since the introduction of e-visas and visa-free group exchanges, Russian Deputy Economic Development Minister Dmitry Vakhrukov said.

"We are approaching or, to be more exact, have entered the season with a working, time-tested mechanism of e-visa and visa-free group exchanges with China and Iran. A total of 400,000 foreigners have come here through these two mechanisms, the visa-free system, group visas, over ten months of operation of these mechanisms," Vakhrukov said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum inbound tourism session.

The ministry plans to sign similar agreements with a number of other countries by the year-end, he said.

"We are set to sign a visa-free group tour agreement with India in Q3 2024 or Q4 2024, and we have made much headway, as we believe, towards the abolition of visas with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Malaysia and Myanmar. We will sign a number of agreements by the end of this year. For instance, we plan to do so with Myanmar at the Eastern Economic Forum in September. This is relevant, as we managed to launch organized tours from Russia to Myanmar and vice versa in May," Vakhrukov said.

The visa-free group tour agreements with China and Iran allow Chinese, Iranian and Russian tourists to travel on group visas. Operators on the list of designated agencies organize such tours.