In the first quarter of this year, 300,000 tourists came to Russia. In the second quarter? Zero.

With the Covid-19 pandemic leaving thousands of planes idle on the tarmac around the world, the tourist industry has been dealt an almighty blow. In the entire second quarter of 2020, not a single foreign tourist visited Russia.

Inbound tourism to Russia decreased by a whopping 83.6 percent in the first half of the year, with 322,801 visitors registered – compared to 1,967,221 in the same period in 2019.

Russia put a halt to all regular and chartered international flights on March 27, as a measure to prevent the import of coronavirus. From then until August 1, the only flights that left the country had to receive special permission and were almost exclusively for repatriation purposes.

Despite the lack of flights, Russia still received 509,000 foreigners in the second quarter of the year, who came to the country for other purposes – such as private visits and business. This figure is 94.1 percent less than for the same period last year, and mainly consisted of citizens arriving by car from former Soviet Union countries.

In terms out outbound flights, Russians made just eight million trips abroad in the first half of 2020, 62.2 percent less than in 2019.

On August 1, Russia resumed international flights to Turkey, Great Britain, and Tanzania. In the upcoming weeks, the country is looking at restoring more international flight connections with foreign countries.

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