Dr. Syed Mehboob
http//: www.thenewslark.com
Senior Research Editor
The News Lark,
Political and Economic Analyst
Russia is a wonderful country with many places worth seeing. The Russian Federation is a country in Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the largest country in the world, spanning eleven time zones and sharing land borders with fourteen countries. It has a GDP ( PPP) of US$ 7,143 billion, GDP ( Nominal) US$ 2,541 billion a population of about 146.028 billion.
Russia is aggressively and comprehensively planning to develop and promote its tourism industry, aiming to enhance annual domestic trips to 140 million by 2030, to invest about one trillion rubles in infrastructure, and projected 5% contribution to GDP. This strategy focuses on regional development, increased hotel capacity, and attracting more visitors from China and the Middle East. The government plans to increase domestic trips, which was till November 2025 were 82.9 million domestic trips. Popular regions for tourism include Moscow, Krasnodar Territory, Saint Petersburg, Tatarstan, and the Caucasus regions.
Russia recorded 82.9 million tourist trips from January to November in 2025, up 5 % year on year. The steady growth brought the country closer to it goal of raising tourism’s contribution to five percent of GDP and increasing annual trips to 140 million by 2030. According to official data, Moscow, Krasnodar territory, and St. Petersburg remained the most popular destinations during the 11 months, receiving 11.3 million, 9 million, and 6.5 million visitors, respectively. Domestic tourism experienced growth in the first 11 months of 2025 and in recent years, Russian Minister of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov said, adding that the tourism industry is becoming a driver of national development, creating new jobs and business opportunities. The prospects for the development of domestic tourism in Russia were evaluated at the sessions of SPIEF 2023. Experts noted that domestic tourism has become not only a fast-growing but also a high-tech sector of the economy over the past few years, and the number of tourists has significantly increased. Currently, the contribution of tourism to the GDP is estimated at 4%, but clearly, this is not enough. During the plenary session of the Forum, Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed to accelerate the development of tourism infrastructure in the regions.
Investment is needed to meet the target. Dmitry Chernyshenko, Tourism RF, the Tourismdepartment, is engaged in attracting investors to the industry. At present, its investment portfolio includes 53 projects. The collective task of TourismRF and the regions is to “jointly create world-class, all-year-round resorts in collaboration with investors, providing accessible and comfortable accommodation options for citizens and guests of Russia.
The discussion on the prospects of domestic tourist flow, priorities, and key directions of development took place during the session entitled Tourism in Russia: A Focus on People, Sustainable Development, and Investment Attractiveness. The session was organized by the Saint Petersburg Committee for Tourism Development in collaboration with the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation. “We predict, and we will strive to attract more visitors to increase the number of tourist trips. Now we have set a target to increase the tourist flow to 140 million people by 2030. I would like to remind you that in 2022, we had 73 million people accommodated in hotels,” said Dmitry Vakhrukov, Deputy Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation.
Tourist infrastructure needs to be developed in order to increase tourist flows. “If today we are talking about the development of automotive tourism, it will be followed by the development of transportation infrastructure. Today we are discussing the development of business tourism infrastructure, and this will be followed by the development of restaurants, hotels, and everything else,” said Alexander Stuglev, Chairman of the Board and CEO of the Roscongress Foundation.Tourism projects that involve a significant increase in tourist flow were presented by regions at the SPIEF Investment and Business Expo exhibition. When developing key tourist destinations, existing resources were taken into account, and the profitability and return on investment in new accommodation facilities were calculated. The development of tourism in the regions is supported within the framework of the national project “Tourism and Hospitality Industry.”
According to Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko, approximately 40 agreements were signed with regions at the Forum for the development of domestic tourism (the total investment volume was estimated at RUB 200 billion). The agreements entail the creation of tourist complexes, modern and affordable accommodations, as well as the launch of new interregional routes throughout the country.Among the top priority measures to support the tourism industry, Dmitry Chernyshenko mentioned preferential loans, grants for beach improvement and the creation of campsites, zero VAT for all hotels, cashback programmes, and co-financing of investment projects by Tourism.RF, and others.
During the sessions of the Forum, participants also discussed issues related to increasing international export of services in the hospitality industry, as well as topics such as automotive, medical, and eco-tourism, and the possibilities for travelling in the Arctic region.The participants of the discussions noted the potential of developing automotive tourism in Russia and said that high-speed roads as an infrastructure service for planning a comfortable and safe journey would allow for more effective cooperation with car brands. For example, at the open platform of the Forum, vehicles from the Forum’s national partner AvtoVAZ, campers, glamping facilities, and vehicles for extreme tourism were presented.
The most popular destinations over this time were Siberia, the southern, and the northwestern parts of the country. The Tourism and Hospitality national project’s tools help increase tourist flow.
The destinations that received the highest numbers of tourists in the first 11 months of 2025 were Moscow (11.3 million), the Krasnodar Territory (9 million), and St. Petersburg (6.5 million). The top ten travel destinations also included the Moscow region (5.2 million), the Republic of Tatarstan (2.6 million), the Republic of Crimea (2.4 million), the Sverdlovsk region (2 million), the Stavropol Territory (1.7 million), the Tyumen region (1.7 million), and the Rostov region (1.6 million).
The areas that saw the largest increase in tourist inflow were those actively developing their tourist infrastructure, i.e., Karachayevo-Cherkessia (+135%), the Republic of Adygeya (+67%), the Chukotka autonomous district (+52%), the Tver region (+50%), and the Jewish autonomous region (+38%).
Russian Economic Development Minister Maxim Reshetnikov said, “We see that not only conventional centers of attraction but also regions that are actively investing in their tourist infrastructure are growing. Karachayevo-Cherkessia’s 135% or Chukotka’s 52% growth are vivid examples of how each territory can unlock its potential.”
Domestic travel flow in the first 11 months of this year and in previous years has seen steady growth, and tourism has turned into a driver for the entire country’s development, creating new jobs and businesses locally, Reshetnikov said.
Last year saw an all-time high of tourist trips within Russia, 90.1 million, growing 35% from 66.5 million in 2021.
Deputy Minister of Economic Development Dmitry Vakhrukov emphasized that Russia aims to increase the number of foreign tourists to 160 million, i.e., almost four times, by 2030. This is reported by the official website of the Russian Ministry of Economic Development. (Continued)
