According to information provided by the Border Service of the FSB of Russia, the number of trips to the “near abroad” in 2023 increased by 10.6%, and to the “far” – by 27.6%. The most popular destinations for Russian tourists in 2023 were:

• Abkhazia – 5.74 million trips
• Türkiye – 5.61 million
• Kazakhstan – 2.94 million
• UAE – 1.72 million
• Egypt – 1.28 million
• Georgia – 1.11 million
• Armenia – 1.10 million
• Thailand – 1.06 million
• China – 0.96 million
• Finland – 0.59 million

Trips to countries of the former USSR amounted to 13.1 million, or 48.6% of the total. This is 10.6% more than in the previous year. 14 million trips were made to “far abroad” countries, which is 27.6% more than in the previous year.

However, it is worth considering that the data is based on boarding passes for direct flights only, so the statistics may be skewed in countries with major hubs, as passengers may be assigned to the country of entry rather than the final destination.

In addition, the list of popular destinations for Russian tourists includes the following countries (by number of trips):

• Maldives – 209 thousand
• Sri Lanka – 197 thousand
• Cuba – 185 thousand
• Indonesia – 160 thousand.