The Russian government did not specify the time frame for the start of the visa-free corridor -poezdkah-84c326b.jpg” alt=”China and Russia Renewed Visa Free Travel Agreement” />
Russia and China Renewed Visa Free Group Tourist Travel Agreement, which was suspended in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. This is reported by RBC with reference to the official response of the Russian Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Economic Development.
The agreement concluded in 2000 allows organized tourist groups from each country from five to 50 people to travel without obtaining a visa for a period of up to 15 days.
Earlier, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People's Republic of China announced plans to allow tourist trips of Chinese citizens to 20 countries, including Russia, from February 6. At the same time, representatives of the tourism business previously reported that the visa-free travel agreement was never renewed, and this is the main deterrent to the resumption of tourist exchange.
The press service of the Ministry of Economic Development of RBC confirmed that now the agreement has been renewed. Similar information was reported in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. According to a representative of the diplomatic department, Chinese citizens can enter the territory of Russia both on the basis of visas, “and without a visa” under an intergovernmental agreement.
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the PRC Should soon time should send to Ministry of Economic Development list of Chinese travel companies that plan to send group tours to Russia. A similar list for the Chinese side is being prepared by the Russian ministry. At the same time, the Russian government did not specify the timing of when exactly the visa-free corridor should start operating.
China was the main market for inbound tourism for Russia before the pandemic. In 2019, up to 1.4 million guests arrived from China out of 5 million total number of foreigners who visited our country, according to the FSB. At the same time, the total spending of Chinese citizens in Russia amounted to about 1 billion US dollars. Most often they visited Moscow and St. Petersburg, including as part of combined tours. In addition, guests from China visited the cities of the Far East and Sochi.