For example, in the first half of the year the number of travellers from Saudi Arabia increased 11 times, from Oman and Kuwait - 6 times, from UAE - 4 times.

In general, the growth in the number of foreign guests was 42%, they made 2 million trips. Such data was shared by Maxim Reshetnikov at the meeting held by President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin with members of the Government.

This was facilitated, for example, by electronic visa and group visa-free travel. In the year since the launch of these mechanisms 800 thousand guests have visited Russia.

It is revealing that travellers from Arab countries and China, together with our tourists, have completely replaced European tourists in St. Petersburg. Thanks to this, the tourist flow in the Northern Capital not only recovered, but also showed a growth of 20%.

Today together with the Ministry of Transport we are working on the issue of direct flights from Saudi Arabia and Indonesia. And the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is negotiating with Saudi Arabia on a visa-free regime.

Source: https://t.me/minec_tourism