Beware, Russian tourists! Where most Russians holiday and where to go to avoid meeting them
24 June 2024 20:24
It’s a no-holds-barred touristic season! Ukrainians are starting to choose the best resorts for the summer of 2024. However, the criteria of both comfort and budget have been supplemented by “no Russians”. So, in order to avoid more news about conflicts between Russians and Ukrainians in the media, the latter ask tour operators to recommend countries where there are fewer tourists from the terrorist country. Or better yet, to have none at all. Editorial [of Kommersant] has analysed the market of tour operators in different countries and compiled a rating of the most popular countries for Russians to go on holiday in 2024.
WHERE TOURISTS FROM ROGUE COUNTRIES GO ON HOLIDAY
(Kommersant Ukrainian rating)
- Turkey
- Egypt
- UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
- Georgia
- Thailand
- Cyprus
- Maldives
“One of the most frequent requests from Ukrainian tourists is to avoid Russians, but unfortunately, there is no hotel in any country that has officially announced that it does not accept Russian citizens. Most of them are in Turkey and Egypt, and the fewest Russians are in European resorts.” – Svitlana, manager of the Join Up consultancy department
One of the largest travel companies, Join Up, specifically for Kommersant Ukrainian, named the top 3 countries where most Russians holiday. These are Egypt, Turkey, and the UAE.
But European countries are no exception, says the manager of the Join Up consultancy department. “Since Russians are not currently granted Schengen visas, there is no massive flow of tourists from Russia to Europe. But there are Russians who live in Europe with passports, who fled before the war or during it. They live, for example, in Spain and Montenegro, where they have their own villas.
“MORAL PRINCIPLES” OF TOURISTS FROM THE AGGRESSOR COUNTRY ARE NOT WELCOME IN EUROPE
Although people in Russia still proudly repeat the famous phrase from the Soviet film “The Diamond Hand” – ” Russo touristo obliko morale”, which means “the Russian tourist is perfectly moral!” or “the Russian tourist has moral principles” – after Putin’s unleashing of a full-scale war and the support of the Russians themselves, the civilised world has long ceased to put the words “Russia” and “morality” in the same row. And this has affected the perception of Russians in the world as a whole. And the list of countries that are happy to see Russians in their resorts has changed since the great war.
Turkey is the only European destination where you can fly directly from Russia without a visa. Turkish operators generously offer flights from Moscow to Antalya and Bodrum at a price of 110 euros. So this country tops the ranking of favourite holiday destinations for Russians.
But it’s worth noting that the freebies may come to an end. On the eve of the start of the active tourist season in 2024, tourists from the aggressor country faced problems. Due to sanctions, citizens of the aggressor country cannot pay for hotel accommodation and other services. “Payments are not being processed through our systems because of the sanctions, tourists cannot pay for a purchase or service,” a source from a financial institution in the Turkish capital told the Moscow Times. Therefore, the situation may change by the end of 2024.
Egypt. Affordable prices and direct flights to the sea. A one-way ticket from Moscow to Hurghada can be purchased from $260. However, the pragmatic Egyptians are also balancing. The staff has known our national slogan “Glory to Ukraine” since 2014. And at the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Russia, all Ukrainian tourists who were stuck in hotels (which is about 25,000) were extended free accommodation for a certain period. After that, Ukrainians were taken to Eastern Europe on charter flights at the expense of the Egyptian budget. And the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism still maintains a hotline in Ukrainian.
Author – Anastasia Fedor
