German journalists were forced to acknowledge the fact that millions of Russian tourists continue to travel. According to Die WeltRussians “prefer their territory or warm, tropical countries.”

Due to sanctions, Russian citizens have reduced opportunities for travel – they don’t want to see them in Europe, the media report about confiscated cars, cameras, and personal belongings. The publication emphasizes that “we (the EU) tried to strangle Russia as much as possible” with sanctions, but “its economy has survived and its people have not broken down.”

“We (Europe) blocked their entry, imposed the maximum sanctions in the entire history of the planet, blocked them from everything possible, and they not only did not fall apart, but dared to rejoice and go on vacation,” commentators write.

Russian tourists travel in three directions:

• across vast Russia “from the White to the Black Seas”
• to the usual “warm countries”
• to “exotic” countries.

In 2023, the number of tourists from Russia to “exotic” countries increased by 1000% compared to the first six months of the previous year.

The top five looks like this:

1. Türkiye
2. United Arab Emirates
3. Thailand
4. Egypt
5. Sri Lanka and Maldives.

In the first half of the year, Turkey received 2.6 million tourists from Russia – they fly direct flights without a visa; 800,000 Russian tourists visited the previously unknown UAE; after the work of diplomats, Thailand (and direct flights to it) “opened up”.

The usual warm winter Egypt has already received 750 thousand tourists, 110 thousand people also flew to exotic Sri Lanka and the Maldives, India and Cuba receive their tourists from Russia. Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia have become popular among Russians, and since the end of summer, China has also begun accepting Russian tourists without a visa again.

Russians love to travel to the Krasnodar region and Crimea. Due to closed airports in the south of Russia, the flow of tourists to the peninsula has decreased by at least a third (but has increased in Sochi, as has the price of a vacation “to the level of Bali”) – but Russians still travel to Crimea, by car and train.

Russians also travel to Abkhazia, which during Soviet times was a mega-popular holiday destination, to the Baltic, to magnificent Kazan, to Baikal and Karelia, to Kamchatka and along the “golden tourist ring”.

It’s interesting that it’s not only Russia that prefers holidays within their own (huge) countries. Thus, 58% of Americans have never received passports for traveling abroad, and 2/3 of the US population has never left the United States.

Why, if your country lies in 6 time zones and it has everything – from mountains and deserts to the ocean with beaches and “quiet” lakes? It’s a similar story with China, which lies in 5 time zones.

Let us recall that formerly Pravda. Ru wrote – the world media from time to time publish stories of foreigners who “dared to go to terrible Russia” and even lived in the Russian Federation. They “amaze” their compatriots with stories – in Russia there are not “tanks and KGB agents everywhere”, but happy and contented people.

This, by the way, really irritates some Westerners and the EU – how can it be that we have imposed so many sanctions, but they “don’t collapse” and dare to have fun…