Popular travel destinations among Russian tourist in the first half of 2004

Among the most popular travel destinations of Russian tourists in the first half of 2004 were Turkey and China reported RATA (Russian Association of Travel Agencies). In comparison with the first half of 2003 tourist visits to these countries increased by 60% in January - July of 2004. 505,064 Russian tourists visited Turkey, 390,299 - China. The growing interest of Chinese destination is concerned with popularity of health tourism. The third place was given to Egypt. 307,411 people visited Egypt in the first half of 2004, which is two times higher than the same period in 2003. It was noticed 7% increase for Poland. 194,436 Russians visited Poland in January - June of 2004. According to the RATA's information, this tentative growth of visits connected with the opening the office of Polish Travel Organization in Moscow, in September 2003. France is becoming more popular among Russian travelers. In the first half of 2004 the country was visited by more than 71,000 Russians in comparison with 41,000 for the same period in 2003. There was mentioned considerable stability of visits to Thailand, Bulgaria, the UK and Austria. At the same time there is continuous decrease of holiday trips to Finland which considers to be one of the most expensive countries in euro zone. In the fist half of 2004 the number of tourist visits to the country decreased by 4%. The same situation with Cyprus. The number of travelers from Russia decreased by 10%. The last in the attendance list are Norway and Malta. In the first half of 2004 the countries were visited by 6,713 and 5,548 Russians accordingly.