Russia and China renewed the agreement on visa-free group travel. It was suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic. It is reported by RBC with reference to the responses of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Economic Development to the requests of the publication.
Now Chinese citizens can enter Russia without a visa under an intergovernmental agreement. In the near future, the Chinese authorities will send to the Ministry of Economic Development a list of Chinese travel companies that plan to send group tours to the Russian Federation.
The Russian department did not specify the time when the visa-free corridor will start operating. Before the pandemic, most tourists came to Russia from China. In 2019, of the 5 million tourists who visited the country, almost 1.4 million were Chinese citizens. They were also spending leaders: In 2019, the Chinese spent $1 billion in Russia.
Earlier it became known that Russia is discussing the introduction of a visa-free regime with Saudi Arabia, Mexico and 10 other countries. It is also planned to increase the length of stay in Hong Kong. We talk about it in more detail here.
