Reshetnikov reported on the growth of tourist trips of Russians to China

During the period of 2024, Russians made about 3 million tourist trips to China, and the positive trend continues. This was announced to Izvestia on September 4 by Maxim Reshetnikov, Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, following a visit to China.

"The positive dynamics has been maintained for several years in the tourism industry. Last year, residents of our countries made almost 3 million tourist trips. Their mutual growth continued this year — plus 20% compared to the same period last year," he said.

According to the minister, such a result in the tourism industry of the countries is due to close cooperation and partnership between the Russian and Chinese sides.

At the same time, Reshetnikov recalled that since July, the validity period of an electronic visa has been increased from 60 to 120 days and the length of stay in Russia from 16 to 30 days. Currently, China is discussing improving the conditions for visa-free group trips to increase the period of stay in the country from 15 to 21 days. The minister specified that such an initiative would be considered before the end of this year.

Chinese portal: Russia and China plan to agree on new visa-free conditions in June

The minimum number of people in a group for free entry can be reduced to three people.

Earlier in the day, Nikita Kondratiev, Director of the Department of Multilateral Economic Cooperation and Special Projects at the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, said that Russia had not yet prepared a reciprocal visa-free regime for Chinese citizens. He noted that such measures by the PRC were an unexpected step for the Russian Federation.

The introduction of a visa-free regime for Russian citizens with a regular passport for up to 30 days became known on September 2. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation reported that Russia has requested additional clarifications from China on the conditions of entry as part of the decision on visa-free entry.

On the same day, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko pointed out the potential of Russia and China for a twofold increase in tourist traffic. According to him, the tourist flow has reached about 70% of the pre-peak level with more than 230 weekly flights.

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