Russia calling: red carpet rolled out for Chinese tourists as Western sanctions bite

As Beijing baked under record summer heat on a Friday afternoon in June, Russian hotel and airlines representatives enthusiastically showcased their latest travel programmes tailored for Chinese clients.

“You can find a cool summer in St Petersburg,” one of them told Chinese tour operators gathered in a downtown Beijing conference hall.

“We have the very famous presidential suites, where President Xi Jinping stayed during his visit to Moscow,” said another, and a murmur rippled through the audience.

Their message was simple – Russia welcomes Chinese tourists.

Squeezed by US-led sanctions following its invasion of Ukraine 16 months ago, Russia is now looking at the world’s second-largest economy to help offset the impact on its tourism and cultural sectors.

According to Russian state news agency Tass, only about 190,000 foreign tourists from outside the former Soviet states visited Russia last year.

However, plans for China to lead a tourism reboot face barriers such as the lack of a favourable visa policy or convenient payment options, as well as concerns over events like the recent Wagner rebellion, according to industry players gathered in Beijing.

“Without a waiver programme, Chinese travellers need to pay an extra 1,500 yuan to 2,000 yuan (US$207-$275) for a tourist visa to Russia,” said Sergey Zhang, a St Petersburg-based Chinese tour operator.

Payment options were another big barrier, Zhang said. Russia has been cut off from the global payment system under sanctions imposed after it invaded Ukraine in February 2022, and this makes paying with foreign credit cards very complicated.

Operations of China’s UnionPay, for instance, have become limited with Russian banks under sanctions. “Foreign travellers may have to bring a lot of roubles in cash, and that’s a big problem,” Zhang said.

Last week’s Wagner rebellion – when fighters from the private mercenary group briefly seized military facilities in a southern Russian city and marched on Moscow – is also likely to deter Chinese tourists, according to Wang Liang, a manager from a Beijing-based tour agency.

As Russia teetered, the elite trembled, and some private jets left

“We’ll wait until next year to restart our tours to Russia because there have been some security concerns, especially in the regions closer to Europe,” Wang said.

The outreach efforts led by tourism authorities in St Petersburg and Moscow follow a high-profile visit to China in late May by Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, with a focus on trade and economic support.

Boosting tourism appears to be high on the agenda for both countries, even as their “no limits” strategic partnership and booming trade ties – largely fuelled by Chinese imports of Russian energy – face increasing scrutiny from the West following the war on Ukraine.

Chinese President Xi Jinping travelled to Moscow to meet Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in March, with a joint statement later pledging “a deepening comprehensive strategic partnership in the new era”.

After the meeting, the two sides agreed to “expand tourism cooperation and exchanges and encourage a comfortable tourism environment”, according to China’s foreign ministry.

According to Russian authorities, an e-visa programme is kicking off in July and officials and tourism operators in Russia have said they are getting ready to host Chinese travellers.

Moscow is also expected to launch a seven-day payment card in December as an alternative to Visa and MasterCard for foreign visitors.

The capital had already invested heavily into making travel easier for visitors from China, with more Chinese-language signage and training for more Chinese-speaking tour guides, said Moscow Tourism Committee head Evgeny Kozlov.

Speaking on the sidelines of a tourism road show in Beijing, Kozlov said the investment would help Chinese visitors “better understand the history and culture” of the city.

“Moscow is a very beautiful city. We sincerely hope that more travellers from China will come to Moscow and have a great time,” he said.

Chinese merchants ‘doing quite well’ in Russia as Western sanctions take toll

Before the coronavirus pandemic, Russia was one of the top destinations for Chinese tourists, who thronged landmarks such as Moscow’s Red Square and the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg.

Russia also waived visa requirements in 2019 for Chinese tour groups of three to 50 people. An estimated 1.7 million Chinese visited Russia that year and spent US$1 billion in all, more than visitors from any other country, according to data from Russia’s central bank.

At one point, there were so many big Chinese tour groups visiting Russia that some locals began to complain about not being able to enjoy their own cultural heritage.

Zhang said while there was no sign that leisure travel would regain its past glory any time soon, business travel involving Chinese investors had recovered quickly, and had already reached 80 per cent of pre-Covid levels.

“Chinese companies now have an opportunity in the Russian market, because of the sanctions by the West.”