Russian Tourism to the US Continues to Grow

Against the general downturn in tourist travel to the US, the Russian market is showing improvement. In the first seven months of this year, tourist travel from Russia to the US grew by 2%. “There is great potential for growth,” said Katja Kravetsky, Commercial Officer of the US Embassy in Russia, at a meeting of the Russian committee of Visit USA in the embassy’s consular department. In 2008, Russian tourist travel to the US increased by 25% against the previous year, to 140,000. A year earlier, the number of Russian tourists travelling to the US grew by 21%. In 2008, Russia moved up from 40th to 36th in a ranking of tourist visits to the US. In 2000, Russia was 46th.

Katja Kravetsky believes that, judging by the results of 2009, Russia will again move up a few places in the list. The peak of travel from Russia is usually in July and December. The total number of tourist visits to the US, according to a forecast for this year, will fall by 8%, with 22 of the top 25 markets showing a fall of up to 17%. Most inbound tourism to the US is from neighbouring Mexico and Canada. The forecast for the end of 2009 for the UK, the most important European market for the US, is down 12%. The results for the first seven months of this year show that the UK market decreased by 17% against the same period of last year.