Over five years, the industry has almost doubled visitor numbers, investment has exceeded 1 trillion roubles, and the number of foreign guests continues to grow by tens of per cent
Tourism is becoming an increasingly prominent part of the Russian economy. According to recent figures from Rosstat, in 2025 the share of the tourism industry’s gross value added in Russia’s GDP reached 3.1% – the highest level since this indicator began to be calculated. Over five years, it has increased by 0.8 percentage points.
Behind this figure lies a marked change in the scale of the industry itself. The volume of services provided by travel agencies, tour operators, booking platforms and related companies has grown from 91.9 billion roubles in 2020 to 445 billion roubles in 2025.
This growth is even more evident in the occupancy of tourism infrastructure. In 2020, Russian hotels, sanatoriums, holiday camps, campsites and other accommodation facilities welcomed 47.4 million guests; by 2025, that figure had risen to around 92 million. The number of overnight stays over this period more than doubled, from 191.2 million to 395.4 million.
The economy surrounding travel is expanding as well. Over five years, the volume of hotel services has grown from 183.4 billion to 611.6 billion roubles, and sanatorium and spa services from 101.9 billion to 269.2 billion. Fixed capital investment in the tourism industry over the same period has roughly tripled, rising from 350.4 billion to 1.05 trillion roubles. Tourist demand is increasingly benefiting not only hotels and tour operators, but also construction, transport, restaurants, museums, the entertainment industry and small businesses across the regions.
Domestic tourism remains the foundation of this growth. In the first half of 2026, Russians made 43.2 million trips within the country – 4.3% more than a year earlier. Yet the second source of demand, foreign travellers, is becoming increasingly significant. Between January and June, around 2.5 million foreign tourists visited Russia, 20.1% more than in the same period of 2025.
Inbound tourism is of particular economic significance: a foreign visitor effectively purchases Russian services on home soil – accommodation, transport, excursions, restaurants, cultural programmes and goods. The Russian Union of Travel Industry describes the development of inbound travel as strategically important precisely because it represents an export of tourism services and an additional source of revenue for regional economies.
For now, the geography of overseas demand remains fairly concentrated. Moscow and St Petersburg continue to be the principal draws, followed by Tatarstan and the Moscow and Irkutsk regions. These five regions account for almost 74% of the inbound tourist flow. At the same time, the range of popular routes is gradually widening: foreign visitors are travelling to Primorye and the Amur region, to Lake Baikal, the Murmansk region and Krasnodar Krai, while business travellers are heading to Kazan and Yekaterinburg. The Russian Union of Travel Industry (RST) also notes growing interest in extended journeys along the Trans-Siberian Railway and itineraries that allow several of Russia’s climatic and cultural zones to be experienced within a single trip.
The composition of the foreign audience is also changing. China now accounts for more than half of inbound tourist arrivals, while the industry also singles out India, Turkey, Vietnam and other Asian countries as promising markets. The development of inbound tourism is therefore increasingly tied not only to traditional European markets but also to the new geography of international travel.
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