Russian tourists flock back to Europe

Telegraph

a day ago

Russian tourists are returning to Europe in growing numbers, despite the war in Ukraine, with France, Italy and Spain their favoured holiday destinations.
The three travel hotspots are all Nato and EU members and have imposed sanctions on Moscow.
Hotel stays by Russians in Italy and France surged by more than 19 per cent in the past year, which Ukrainian diplomats branded 'disturbing' and a security risk.
But France, which spearheads the 'coalition of the willing' nations supporting Ukraine with Britain, defends keeping borders open to rich Russian tourists, as does Italy.
The trend was revealed by Telegraph analysis of data on hotel room stays and rentals on websites such as booking.com and Airbnb, and of visas issued to the EU's Schengen free-movement zone.
Vsevolod Chentsov, Ukraine's ambassador to the EU, warned that ignoring the returning Russians would be 'short-sighted' and dangerous.
He told the Telegraph: 'In the fourth year of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, it is extremely surprising to see statistics showing an increase in the number of visas issued to Russian citizens and a growth in tourist traffic from Russia to EU countries.
'We know that Russian society overwhelmingly supports the war. Moreover, it prefers to think that Russia is at war with the West and not with Ukraine, where the Russian army commits war crimes on massive scale.'
He added: 'With increasing number of Russia's cyberattacks against EU member states, acts of sabotage and all sort of hybrid activities aimed at undermining European democracies, it is disturbing that Russian citizens can easily enjoy the benefits of travelling to Europe.
'Continuing to ignore this reality is short-sighted. It's a matter of European security.'
Fires in warehouses known to be part of logistical supply chains have taken place across Europe, including in Britain, while there have also been reports of sabotaged train tracks.
In the past, Russian spies posing as diplomats would be linked to these incidents, but since the 2018 poisoning of the Skripals, Moscow is known to also deploy agents on tourist visas.
Stop EU visas for Russians
Sir William Browder is an American-born English financier turned anti-Putin activist and campaigner. He urged France, Italy and Spain to stop issuing visas to Russians.
'Unless the Russians can demonstrate in a visa interview that they're opposed to the Putin regime, they shouldn't be allowed to come to Europe,' he said.
European capitals have hit the Kremlin with waves of sanctions since Putin launched his illegal invasion in 2022.
Both Britain and the EU closed their airspace to Russian airlines, triggering a drop in tourist numbers. There are still dozens of routes to Europe through Turkey, Georgia, Serbia and other countries.
In order to get to Rome, for example, a Russian tourist would have to stop over in Turkey or the UAE and switch flights.
The additional costs put the trip out of the reach of most ordinary Russians, but those that do make it to Europe also face difficulties because of the sanctions, which means their bank cards don't work.
However, Istanbul's Ataturk airport is brimming with currency exchanges where Russians can swap roubles for euros to sustain their visits to Europe.
'There are many Russians who support the war, and particularly the Russians who have money,' Sir William said.
'What we absolutely don't want to do is allow these Russians to enjoy the privileges and resources of Europe, while at the same time they're supporting Putin's war efforts.'
'Europe should be open for people in the Russian opposition who are being persecuted, but no visa should be issued to Russian oligarchs or mini-garchs and others who support Putin, and I think we should err on the side of non visa issuance in that respect.'
He said refusing visas would put pressure on Putin's regime and lessen the security risk posed by Russia's hybrid war against the West.
Sanctions undermined
Sir William said EU governments had to be consistent because if one country grants a Schengen visa, the supposed tourist can travel anywhere in the passport-free zone.
Western governments have been reluctant to issue outright travel bans, except in the case of sanctioned individuals such as Putin's cronies and apparatchiks.
In contrast, the Baltic nations and pro-Ukraine countries bordering Ukraine and Russia stopped issuing tourist visas to Russia or heavily restricted their numbers.
Jan Lipavsky, foreign minister of the Czech Republic, accused those welcoming Russian holidaymakers of undermining the EU's sanctions against Moscow in return for wealthy tourists' cash.
He told The Telegraph, 'It is deeply troubling to see some EU countries returning to business as usual with Russian tourists while Ukraine continues to suffer under brutal aggression.
'Czechia has taken a principled stance – we do not process any tourist visa applications and we believe this should be the standard across the European Union.'
Mr Lipavsky said the numbers of tourists coming to the EU last year was 'totally excessive' and raised serious concerns 'not only from a security standpoint, but also from a moral one'.
He said, 'At such volumes, we cannot rule out the possibility that individuals complicit in war crimes are among those vacationing in our resorts. That is unacceptable.'
He added, 'I also see that some countries have a self-interested motive – they want the income from Russian tourism. It's not just about visa fees; it's about money spent on hotels, shopping, tickets and so on. Russians are known to spend a lot.
'This undermines the credibility of our sanctions regime and sends a confusing message about our values.'
Lifeline for dissidents
Andrei Soldatov is a senior fellow with the Center for European Policy Analysis think tank and a Russian investigative journalist specialising in the activities of the Kremlin's secret services.
He said the visas were valuable for dissidents and families that wanted to visit them abroad.
He said, 'it is a problem which doesn't have a simple solution. These are also the countries which help people with anti-Kremlin views move out.
'To make it safe for these people one needs to hide their applications in a stream of other applications. One cannot really expect a Russian dissident to come to a foreign embassy for a 'dissident visa', given the high level of repression in the country.'
Popular locations
Across the EU, visitor numbers are just a tenth of what they were in 2019, before the pandemic and the invasion, but this varies substantially across the bloc.
In 2024, just six EU countries saw an increase in guest nights booked by Russians via websites such as Airbnb, according to figures from Eurostat.
Italy saw the largest increase of 18.9 per cent, with 321,678 guest nights across the year, the highest in Europe.
France remains the third most popular location for Russian tourists with 203,072 guest nights per year, which is an increase of 7.8 per cent - the fourth highest spike in Europe.
Spain is second at 259,068 guest nights, down 3.6 per cent from the previous year, according to the figures obtained from the EU's statistics agency.
There was a rise of 13 per cent in the number of nights booked by Russians in Hungary, which has a government that is notoriously soft on Putin.
The UK, whose data differs slightly from the EU's, would rank seventh on the list for Russia visitors after Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, Greece and Cyprus.
Unlike France and Italy, Britain saw its visitor numbers fall by around 1.3 per cent year-on-year, according to data from the Office for National Statistics.
Other statistics, which look at nights across hotels rather than Airbnb-style websites, suggest that France is hosting 27 per cent of the level it was in 2019, compared to just 9.8 per cent in the United Kingdom.
The UK has always required Russian tourists to apply for visas, including when it was part of the EU. It never joined Schengen.
Schengen members also require that Russians obtain visas. There was an agreement, which made it faster and cheaper to obtain those tourist visas to enter the EU but it was suspended after Putin invaded Ukraine.
Analysis of Schengen area visas also showed that Italy and France were leading the tourism rapprochement with Russia.
Italy issued 152,254 Schengen area visas at its two Russian consulates last year, which was almost 19,000 more than in 2023.
France issued a total of 123, 890, according to European Commission figures, 25,000 more than the year before. Spain issued 111,527, an increase of 15,000.
Figures first reported by the EU Observer website showed a rebound in Schengen visas for Russians with 552,630 issued in total last year, an increase of nine per cent. Greece issued 59,703 visas and Hungary 23,382.
Rome and Paris unrepentant
'Italy continues to regularly issue visas to Russian tourists who meet our requirements,' A spokesman for Antonio Tajani, the Italian minister of foreign affairs and deputy prime minister, said.
'Our opposition is to the Russian army's military operations in Ukraine, not to the Russian people.'
The Elysée was presented with the statistics but did not respond to requests for comment. France has previously defended issuing visas to Russians.
'People-to-people relations and cultural ties can play a positive role in fostering mutual understanding and dialogue between populations,' the French foreign affairs ministry told EU Observer.
'We work hard at maintaining a differentiation between the regime responsible for the war and the population, its civil society, and the opposition,' it said.
'It is essential to maintain this window, to enable Russian society to get access to a plurality of reliable sources of information.'
The British and Spanish government were asked for comment. The European Commission said they could not comment, despite being given 72 hours notice, because it was summer.
Eurostat, the EU's statistics body, has collected data on the number of guest nights spent in 'collaborative economy platforms', which includes sites such as Airbnb and Expedia since 2018.
The UK's Office for National Statistics has collected similar data since mid-2023, meaning pre-invasion figures are not available and there might be minor methodological differences between the two bodies.
Data on broader hotel stays across Europe have not been updated for the entirety of Europe in 2024.