Russian citizens can have different opinions with regard to the annexation of Crimea, support of Donbass separatists or the involvement of Russia’s air-space forces in the campaign against Islamists in the Middle East. However, some consequences of the Kremlin’s “extremely tough” foreign policy and the cooling of Russia’s relations with the West have already affected Russians who, since Perestroika, have gotten used to being able to travel abroad freely. Mass traveling abroad, vacationing on warm southern beaches of Turkey and Egypt, or roaming around old European cities, is not available anymore.
Russia’s tourism industry is experiencing the biggest crisis in 25 years. The tourist flow from Russia to Western countries has considerably decreased which came mainly as the result of informal and formal restrictions that are being imposed on officials, especially those employed by law enforcement bodies, the judicial system and state-owned companies with regard to foreign travel to NATO countries – not the result of the population’s decreasing income level, although the latter cannot be disregarded either. Government bodies and state-owned companies received internal orders that directly prohibited or strongly advised employees against traveling abroad. Since the government could not put the same pressure on ordinary Russians, the Interior Ministry and the Russian Federal Tourism Agency have just been scaring Russian tourists with, for example, the risk of being arrested in the United States on “questionable grounds”. According to Russian Union of Travel Industry (RUTI) press secretary Irina Tyurina, from January to September 2015, Russia has experienced the largest decrease in foreign travel in 15 years, with a 31.4 percent drop in journeys abroad when compared to the same period in 2014.
However, as became evident last fall, these problems only marked the beginning of a real crisis, triggered by the two tragic events, which delivered a devastating blow to Russia’s tourist industry. Moscow imposed a ban on all flights to Egypt after the crash of a Russian airliner in Sinai, allegedly caused by a terrorist act, that killed all 224 people on board, and another ban on charter flights to Turkey after Turkey’s shooting down of a Russian bomber violating its airspace, accompanied by a recommendation to Russian tour operators to suspend selling tours to Turkey and sending there tourists. Moreover, on November 14, right after the terrorist attacks in Paris, the Russian Federal Tourism Agency advised Russians against traveling to France which was soon followed by yet another ban on charter flights to that country. In a nutshell, the population is being strongly advised to remain in Russia.
Turkey and Egypt used to account for 40 percent of the Russians’ foreign travel. This is a huge turnover, constituting the base of the tourism industry. On December 2, Tyurina admitted that the demand for travel packages has dropped by 50 to 60 percent which was not caused by natural economic processes, as in 2014, but by “politics bursting into tourism which nobody could have foreseen”.
It would seem that domestic tourism should be thriving under such circumstances. Russian government suggests following the example of the United States where 80 percent of the population never leave the country, and developing an “all-inclusive” system like in Turkey and Egypt. Crimea and Sochi are being offered as alternative vacation destinations. However, Russians are in no hurry to follow such advice. Furthermore, tour operators themselves do not consider domestic tourism to be potentially lucrative, first of all because vacation packages within Russia are selling at higher rates than comparable affordable destinations in Turkey or Egypt.
Kremlin, represented by the head of Russia’s Federal Tourism Agency, Oleg Safonov, declared that it was unnatural for Russians to spend their vacations abroad. “The need for beaches and the sea is very much a stereotype of recent years, which we already accept as our own opinion. Our forefathers, even the wealthy, did not go en masse to foreign seas.” Indeed, vacationing abroad is not for mere mortals – this is a privilege of the elite. This is how it was both in Czarist Russia and under the Soviet regime. It is no coincidence that the country’s major airlines, popular among Russian tourists, like Transaero, go bankrupt, and only Gazpromavia, a corporate airline of the wealthiest state monopoly, is constantly expanding its assortment of VIP services on its international charter flights for state officials and their family members. Considering themselves owners of Russia, Kremlin patrons do not care if the tourist industry is doomed, even if it accounts for 3 percent of the country’s GDP. In order to remain in power, Putin and his clan feel the need to prevent the population from traveling abroad and make sure that Russians learn about life in other countries solely from the media, controlled from Kremlin. Raised by the KGB, Kremlin rulers know exactly how to achieve this – they have long been itching to restore the “Iron Curtain”.
