Though it has registered an increase of almost 700% in Russian tourists, Tunisia appears only in the 18th place of most popular destinations for Russians, according to figures from
Rosstat, the Statistical Service of the Russian Federation, which shows that 13.2 million Russians traveled abroad for tourism purposes during the 1st half of 2016, a decrease of 13.1% compared to 2015.
The most popular destination for Russian tourism is Abkhazia, once known as a holiday destination for the Soviet elite.
Countries that have experienced a significant increase include Cyprus (+50%), China (+45%), Thailand (+24.2%), Bulgaria (+23.8%), Greece (+22.1%) and Abkhazia and Georgia (both 21.2%). Spain registered an increase of 14.6%; part of this increase is a result of the stagnation of outflow to Egypt and Turkey.
The main beneficiary of the situation in Egypt and Turkey is Tunisia. In the first half of 2015, 27,800 Russian tourists visited the small African country.
This year Tunisia registered 186,000 Russian visits, an increase of almost 700%. All of this despite the fact that in 2015 the outflow to Tunisia decreased by 72% due to terrorist attacks.
The top 10 most popular destinations among Russians are: Abkhazia (1.5 million), Finland (1.26 million), Kazakhstan (1.25 million), Ukraine (816,000), China (712,000), Estonia (698,000), Poland (581,000), Germany (468,000), Thailand (441,000), and Spain (321,000).
Then follows Cyprus (314,000), Italy (313,000), Lithuania (303,000), Georgia (298,000), Azerbaijan (267,000), Greece (260,000), UAE (240,000), Tunisia (186,000), Bulgaria (182,000) and France (180,000). Turkey and Egypt are not in the top 20.
