The authorities have agreed on the return of mass Chinese tourism to Russia

The first groups of Chinese tourists in RUSSIA are expected by the summer, but the mass tourist flow will reach pre-pandemic levels in two to three years at best. Why the return of tourists from CHINAimportant for the economy and what are the problems with it

Russia and China have resumed an agreement on visa-free group tourist trips, suspended due to the covid-19 pandemic , follows from the responses of the Russian Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Economic Development to a request from RBC. This is a document concluded between the governments of China and Russia in February 2000, it allows organized tourists in a group of five to 50 people to visit a neighboring country on the lists without obtaining a visa and stay there for up to 15 days.

What's happened

Earlier this month, the Ministry of Tourism and Culture of the PRC announced that from February 6, Chinese travel agencies will be able to resume sending tourist groups to 20 countries, including Russia. Russian tour operators almost immediately announced their readiness to accept groups from China, but emphasized that a number of factors hinder the resumption of tourist trips, the main of which is that the agreement on visa-free tourist trips has not yet been renewed.

The agreement between Russia and China on visa-free group tourist trips, suspended due to the pandemic, has resumed its effect, RBC was told in the press service of the Ministry of Economic Development, which has been in charge of the development of the tourism industry in Russia since the fall of 2022 after the liquidation of Rostourism. The representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed that Chinese citizens can enter the territory of Russia both on the basis of visas, "and in a visa-free manner" within the framework of an intergovernmental agreement.

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In order to allow tourists to enter Russian territory, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the PRC should soon send the Ministry of Economic Development a list of Chinese travel companies that plan to send group tours to Russia under the agreement, a representative of the Russian ministry specified. The Ministry of Economic Development, in turn, will send this list to the border service. The expected dates for when the visa-free corridor will start operating have not been announced by the Russian ministry.

The State Council of the People's Republic of China, which includes the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, did not respond to RBC's request at the time of publication.

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Why is the return of Chinese tourists important for Russia?

Before the pandemic, most foreign tourists came to Russia from China. In 2019, out of 5 million tourists who visited our country, almost 1.4 million arrived from China, follows from the data of the FSB border service. Most came precisely as part of visa-free groups - in 2019 they were 1.2 million people.

Guests from China were the leaders in terms of spending among foreigners visiting Russia. According to the Central Bank, in 2019, the total spending of Chinese citizens in Russia, including tourists, reached $1 billion (for comparison: citizens of Kazakhstan and Ukraine, who were in second and third place, spent $978 million and $943 million, respectively).

Chinese tourists mainly visited Moscow and St. Petersburg - often as part of a combined tour that included the two capitals. The cities of the Far East, as well as Sochi, close to China, were popular. In Moscow and St. Petersburg, the turnover of tour operators serving Chinese tourists before the pandemic could reach 30 billion rubles. per year - this money was used to pay for the services of hotels, transport, catering establishments and museums, the World Without Borders association estimated. In addition, the Chinese could spend another 10 billion rubles. for shopping and entertainment.

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For many years, due to the weak ruble, Russia has been one of the most sought-after markets for Chinese tourists for buying premium and luxury goods (clothing, bags, shoes, watches and jewelry, and others), Deloitte noted. At the Moscow TSUM, the share of buyers from China reached 7% of the total number of customers, and at the St. Petersburg DLT - 17%. The Chinese were active visitors to Russian museums - for example, in the State Historical Museum (GIM) in 2019, up to 70% of the total number of foreign tourists were from China.

When will Chinese tourists start coming to Russia?

Since the start of the pandemic, Russia has practically lost inbound tourism. In 2022, according to the FSB border service, only about 200,000 foreign tourists came to the country, of which only 842 were from China. For travel, the Chinese issued individual visas: according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in 2022, 1 thousand tourist visas were issued to Chinese tourists, in January 2023 - more than 230.

The tourism business has high hopes for the return of Chinese tourists, said Maya Lomidze, executive DIRECTOR of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR). “Everyone has high hopes for China this year. Direct flights have been opened, tour operators have applications, but success will depend on the “unfreezing” of the visa-free agreement, which has not yet begun to work after the covid break. If it works, we are waiting for the renaissance of inbound tourism,” Lomidze said.

Tour operators Intourist and Tari Tour already have applications for group tours from China, representatives of the companies told RBC. But tourists will not leave until summer, says Marina Levchenko, general director of Tari Tour: as a rule, groups from China come during the high tourist season - in mid-June. The exact dates for receiving guests will become clear after March, when the mechanisms for entering Russia on visa-free lists will be clear, RBC's interlocutor adds.

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Russian tour operators are hoping to be able to get accredited and host Chinese tour groups to eliminate gray-scale pre-pandemic guest service, Levchenko said. We are talking about the common practice of tours "for zero dollars", when Chinese travel agencies sold tours at a price below cost, and then "beat off" the money through purchases in Russian stores, where prices were inflated several times, while buyers transferred money to accounts companies in China, and the profits did not enter the Russian economy.

The main obstacle to the resumption of mass tourism from China is air transportation, says Sergey Voitovich, general director of the Svoy TS travel agency: “Mass tourism from China was based on charter flights, but Chinese charters do not fly to Russia yet, including due to service problems aircraft." The use of cards of foreign banks, not all of which work in Russia, may also become a restriction for tourists.

What's going on with air travel

Air traffic between Russia and China has been restored after the pandemic, but to a limited extent - this affects the cost of tickets, ATOR noted. Of the Russian airlines, so far only Aeroflot flies between Moscow and China: three times a week to Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, once to Chengdu. Based on the capacity of Boeing 777-300ER aircraft (for 402 and 427 seats), Aeroflot can carry a maximum of 8.54 thousand people on these flights. As for Chinese carriers, according to ATOR, Air China and Hainan Airlines fly from Beijing to Moscow.

IrAero planes from Irkutsk and Avrora planes from Khabarovsk fly from Russian regions to Harbin. Other Russian airlines would like to resume flights to China, but are facing significant difficulties as Chinese carriers increase their presence in the market, laments the manager of one of the carriers.

The Chinese authorities offered to increase the number of flights of their airlines to Russia, since the planes from Russia “have dual registration” and it is “difficult for them to fly to China,” Chinese Ambassador Zhang Hanhui admitted. In the spring of 2022, China closed its airspace to foreign aircraft of Russian airlines registered in two jurisdictions (except Russia in Bermuda or Ireland). Foreign leasing companies will also delay their aircraft in China, so only aircraft of Russian owners will be able to fly there, Oleksandr Lanetsky, General Director of Friendly Avia Support, warns.

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As demand resumes, Aeroflot may increase the frequency of flights to Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou to daily, and plans to operate flights to Chengdu up to three times a week, an airline representative told RBC. Utair expects to start flights to China, now this carrier is completing its accreditation, a source familiar with the airline's plans told RBC.

The representative of Rosaviatsia declined to comment. RBC sent inquiries to the press service of the Ministry of Transport, as well as to the largest airlines - S7, Ural Airlines, Utair, Azur Air, Nordwind and iFly.

How tourists can pay

Visa and Mastercard international payment systems cards issued by foreign banks stopped working in Russia after these systems left the country in March 2022.

But in Russia, Chinese citizens can pay with cards from the Chinese UnionPay payment system, as well as through AliPay and WeChat Pay cardless payment services - the latter are the most popular among Chinese tourists. However, they may not be accepted in all outlets.

AliPay and WeChat Pay are accepted in Russia by Russian Standard Bank, Sendy and MOBI.Dengi payment systems, their representatives told RBC. On the official page of AliPay, it is indicated that Promsvyazbank is also its acquirer in Russia (but the RBC bank itself specified that they do not work with AliPay and WeChat Pay now).

Representatives of Russian Standard and payment systems did not name the exact number of outlets connected to the reception of AliPay and WeChat Pay. MOBI.Dengi installed AliPay and WeChat Pay in offline retail stores and in the HoReCa segment (hotels and restaurants), a representative of the payment service specified. The main direction of the Sendy payment system is the major players in the “health and beauty” and “air transport” segments, says its HEAD Dmitry Chuprov, without specifying other details.

UnionPay has not officially announced the restriction of its work in Russia. But, as RBC sources reported, the Chinese payment system introduced a ban on servicing its cards issued by foreign banks in POS terminals that are under Western sanctions of banks (among them are the largest acquiring banks in Russia and Europe: Sberbank, VTB, Alfa- bank, Promsvyazbank and Gazprombank). Of the largest acquiring banks, Tinkoff and Russian Standard are not subject to sanctions.

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Will Russia be as popular with the Chinese as before?

Trips to Russia, of course, will be in demand among the Chinese - traditions and the proximity of the territory play a role here, says Alexander Lvov, deputy chairman of the board of the World Without Borders association and CEO of Retro Tourism. At the same time, the absence of a number of foreign brands in Russia may negatively affect the flow of Chinese tourists, the expert admits.

After the start of a special military operation in Ukraine, most of the world's luxury brands suspended deliveries to Russia and closed boutiques - among them were LVMH (Louis Vuitton, Dior, Fendi), Kering (brands Gucci, Balenciaga, Yves Saint Laurent), Richemont (Cartier, Piaget, Montblanc) and others. Some brands have returned to the Russian market in a smaller volume and through other representatives, but whether this offer will be able to meet demand is a big question, says Maria Gerasimenko, founder of Fashion Advisers. Russian designers occupy an insignificant share in the luxury niche, and the most likely expert considers the redistribution of tourists' expenses towards the purchase of jewelry and impressions.

Not all Chinese tourists “buyed up luxury brands”, the tourist flow to Russia was mainly middle-income people who traveled thanks to air tickets available due to charter programs, Anastasia Balashova, commercial director of the entry department of the Intourist tour operator, objected.

Russia is still popular with Chinese tourists, but there will be significantly fewer of them, because after the pandemic, tourist packages have risen in price all over the world and it will take several years for prices on the market to become acceptable, Levchenko believes. The tourist flow from China to Russia will be able to reach the pre-pandemic level no earlier than 2024–2025, Balashova believes: “Everything will depend on the number of flights, ticket prices and the availability of charters,” the top manager noted.

Chinese tourists can play a key role in restoring Russian inbound tourism, Zarina Doguzova, the former head of the Federal Tourism Agency and a member of the expert council under the government, is sure. Tourists will finally have the opportunity to realize the pent-up demand for Russia - primarily for cultural and educational trips to Moscow and St. Petersburg, as well as for environmental destinations in the Far East and the Russian North. But there will be no quick recovery in the tourist flow - it may take at least three years to achieve sub-like indicators, Doguzova warns. “During this time, it is necessary to complete the whitewashing of this market segment so that the money from visiting Russia by Chinese tourists remains in the country, and to attract more solvent tourists so that the income of Russian business grows,” said the former head of Rostourism.