A Russian tourist in Nha Trang beach before the Covid-19 pandemic. Photo: realtimes.vn 

As Russians are now busily making a travel plan for the New Year 2023, the Travel platform OneTwoTrip announces its statistics on booking data of Russian tourists, with departures between December 31 and January 8, 2023. 

As a result, the number of Russian tourists booking trips abroad on this platform amounted to 77.3%, which corresponds to an 8.6-fold increase in market share compared to the previous year.

Thailand was the most favored destination by Russian tourists, with the number of holiday bookings accounting for 38.7%, followed by Indonesia (10.9%), Vietnam (10.8%), the Philippines (5.5%), and Turkey (5.1%). However, this travel platform predicts that the list of popular destinations for the 2023 New Year holiday will change.

The coastal central city of Nha Trang is one of the favorite travel destinations in Vietnam to Russia. Russian arrivals to Vietnam on a charter flight in 2021. Photo: vnreport.vn

At the “3rd Vietnam - St. Petersburg Tourism Forum” held in St. Petersburg, Russia this month, Deputy Chairman of the St. Petersburg Foreign Affairs Committee Vyacheslav Kalganov emphasized that Russian tourists are now turning more strongly to Asia in the context that the country is still suffering from Western sanctions and international vacation destinations are limited.

“Vietnam will continue to be an ideal travel destination for Russian tourists. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, Vietnam received over 600,000 tourists from Russia yearly. The number of Russian visitors may increase in the coming years,” he said.

According to local tourism businesses specializing in serving Russian tourists, charter flights carrying tourists from Russia to Vietnam have not been resumed since April 2022.

Currently, Russian tourists only come to Vietnam in small groups. They must transit through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan before taking a flight to Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City.

In the first eight months of 2022, only about 14,600 Russian visitors were to Vietnam (accounting for 1% of the total number of visitors).