Russian tourists have avoided Europe this summer, their number is one third lower than last year due to the Ukrainian crisis and its impact on Russia's economy, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Wednesday, as quoted by AFP.
"The decline has reached 30%, the effect of worsening our international relations," Medvedev said at a meeting on tourism, adding that is bad news for Russian citizens support the price, but these countries receiving tourists.
According to the head of the government in Moscow, Russia less traveled in Central and more in the North and South, in countries such as Bulgaria, Italy and Spain. The slowdown of the Russian economy and the ruble devaluation caused by Western sanctions against Russia, have caused failures in some of some travel agencies.
Medvedev showed that new travel agencies have closed down in just two months and 23,000 tourists stranded abroad and were repatriated by a special fund, without taking into account the tourists have returned to the country on own.
Prime Minister asked to punish those responsible, and strengthening the tourism sector regulations and insurance mechanism against such events. "The situation on the market of tourist services is simple, obvious, but it is not correct to talk about a large-scale crisis," said Medvedev.
Due to problems crossed the Russian economy and the uncertainties generated by the Ukrainian crisis, many Russians have given up large expenses, such as buying cars or trips. Director General of the Russian airline Aeroflot, Vitaly Savelev, recently stated that the application has registered the biggest drop since 2009 after the global crisis, informs mediafax.ro.
According to data released Tuesday, 40 million Russians traveling abroad annually. The most important tourist destinations of Russians are traditionally Turkey and Egypt, but the number of tourists traveling to European countries has increased in recent years, with the development of the middle class.