ITB Berlin and IPK International analyse Russian outbound trips over the last few years – Turkey and Ukraine are Russians’ favourite destinations – city breaks are among the growth markets
In 2013 Russia registered a huge increase in trips to foreign destinations and became Europe’s third biggest foreign travel market, reporting around 32 million trips abroad. These are the latest findings of the World Travel Monitor, a survey carried out by IPK International. Since the start of the millennium Russia has become one of the few boom markets in international tourism. After 2000 Russia reported continuous double-digit growth, only marginally trailing other boom countries such as China. In 2013, with around 32 million trips abroad, Russia even overtook France. From 2010 to 2013 Russia accounted for around one-third of the growth in foreign trips by Europeans. Most of these were undertaken from Moscow and St. Petersburg, large cities in the western part of the country.
Until 2013 forecasts predicted that Russia’s foreign travel market would continue to grow. Even in February 2014 IPK International’s Travel Intensity Confidence Index, which is conducted regularly across the globe, pointed to continuing high growth. Dr. Martin Buck, director of Travel & Logistics at Messe Berlin: “Unfortunately, the weak rouble, the Crimean crisis and the problems in Ukraine indicate that growth rates in the Russian market are stagnating.“