In recent years, digital detox has become popular — a vacation without the Internet, or even mobile communication. People were eager to take a break from the stream of frightening news, constant messenger alerts and the flood of emails. Therefore, many people chose hotels without wi‑fi for vacations and turned on their smartphones only for a short time so as not to miss anything really important.
In 2023, this trend intensified. Now people tend to relax in the wild and try to do not only without the Internet, but also without other benefits of civilization — electricity and running water. The forest, tent, and tourist camp have become attractive places to relax and reboot. This type of recreation allows many people to finally begin to lead a healthy lifestyle — move more, spend the whole day outdoors, eat natural foods and give up excess consumption.
This trend is gaining momentum in Russia as well. Trekking is becoming more and more popular — hiking trips lasting several days. If you suddenly want to go hiking too, rather read our text about the 10 most beautiful hiking routes in Russia.
The pandemic, and then visa restrictions, forced many Russians to stay at home. And travelers began to discover the inner routes. This summer, the tourist flow in the country has increased The PCT said that the tourist flow in Russia in the summer of 2023 increased by 12% / TASS by 12% compared to the same period last year. In the top — Krasnodar Territory, Moscow, St. Petersburg‑St. Petersburg, Tatarstan, Moscow, Sverdlovsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Yaroslavl, Rostov and Novosibirsk regions.
The top three most popular domestic destinations among tourists this summer became unexpected. In the first place, according to How I spent this summer‑2023 / VTsIOM VTSIOM, St. Petersburg broke out‑St. Petersburg is not surprising, although it used to be slightly inferior to the capital. But Kazan took the second place. And she also overtook Moscow — this is also a surprise of the outgoing year. The capital shared the bronze medal with Novosibirsk.
About Kazan wrote a lot this year. Travel industry professionals consider Kazan remains a popular destination for domestic tourism / Business Online that the main advantages of the city are transport accessibility and the opportunity to have an interesting time all year round. It seems that this is the case: in December 2023, Kazan entered Kazan entered the top five popular holiday destinations for companies in December / The official portal of local governments of the city of Kazan in the top five most popular places to relax with friends.
We had a vacation outside the country this summer The PCT told how many Russians have vacationed abroad this summer / RIA Novosti quite a few Russians — about 3%, or almost 5 million people. Turkey turned out to be the most popular destination — we visited it only in 9 months of the year Turkey was visited by more than 5.16 million tourists from Russia in 9 months of 2023 / Association of Tour Operators 5 million tourists — 33% more than a year ago. Most Russians flew to Istanbul, most likely because of the opportunity to transfer to flights to European and overseas countries.
Abkhazia took the second place in popularity among our tourists, and the United Arab Emirates took the third position. Next in the ranking are Thailand, Egypt, and the Maldives. Interestingly, the tourist flow to Thailand increased in 2023 Rich Russians Isolated From the West Are Flocking to Thailand’s Phuket / Bloomberg by almost 1000% compared to 2022.
Belarus can be singled out from the near abroad — I visited it in the summer How I spent this summer‑2023 / VTsIOM one in ten of those who chose to vacation abroad. Then Azerbaijan tourists rested on the coast of the Caspian Sea.
From January to October, the remote island was visited by The Russian tourist flow to Cuba will update the record in 2019 / Association of Tour Operators 3.5 times more travelers than in the same months last year. By the middle of 2023, more than 67,600 Russian tourists had rested in Cuba, although they had visited it for the whole of 2022 The Russian tourist flow to Cuba will update the record in 2019 / Association of Tour Operators only 54,000 people. And in October 2023, the number of tourists from Russia exceeded 146 thousand. More travelers arrive on the island only from the USA and Canada.
And in December, Cuba began to take in test mode Where in Cuba it is already possible to pay with Mir cards / Association of Tour Operators Mir maps — they can be used in hotels and retail outlets. If, over time, the experience is extended to the whole country, this also encourages Russians to come to the island.
