(Yicai) Sept. 15 -- China’s culture and tourism ministry has published the first group of 268 travel agencies that will be allowed to operate visa-free group tours to Russia as part of Russia’s drive to attract more visitors from its neighbor to boost its flagging tourism industry.

Thirty-six of these travel agencies are in southern Guangdong province, where the majority of such tour group operators are based, while 30 are in Beijing and 10 in Shanghai, according to the announcement made by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism on Sept. 12.

"Russia welcomes Chinese tourists," Lu Xiangdong, director of Shanghai New Era Cultural Center, told Yicai. "Our Russian partners have asked us many times when Chinese tourists will start to return en masse," he added.

"Since 2014, Russia has been actively developing its tourism industry and has renovated its scenic spots and infrastructure. But since the Covid-19 pandemic, the tourists have disappeared,” Lu said.

This is the latest measure taken by Russia to try to get visitor numbers back to 2019 levels. On Aug. 1, Russia introduced e-visas for citizens from 55 countries including China on Aug. 1. The e-visas, which expire after 60 days, cost around USD52 and allow a visit of up to 16 days, according to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs website.

Nearly 31,000 e-visas were issued in August, which was not a full month, and most of the applicants were from China, Estonia, India, Germany and Türkiye.

China and Russia used to allow visa-free entry for group tours of between five and 50 people between the two countries since 2000. But this changed after the pandemic arrived.

Some 1.5 million Chinese tourists traveled to Russia in 2019, a jump of 18 percent year on year and accounting for 65 percent of all Chinese visitors. Just over 80 percent of these visitors entered the country through visa-free channels, according to data from the Border Service of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation.

Russia is striving to attract 10 million tourists this year, in a return to 2019 levels, according to the country’s Ministry of Economic Development. The ministry predicts that with the new e-visas and visa-free travel, there will be 500,000 travelers from China to Russia this year. It is still a long way from the more than four million visitors in 2019.

The Russian-Ukrainian conflict has had a big impact on tourism in Russia, said Lu. For example, Aeroflot used to be a big driver of tourism from China, but now that sanctions have made it difficult to maintain aircraft, there are fewer flights and higher fares, making it more expensive for people to visit.

Some Chinese tourists also said that applying for an e-visa to Russia is not as simple as it sounds. One tourist told Yicai that although he had bought the air ticket, paid for insurance and booked the hotel, his e-visa application has been repeatedly returned for revisions.

"Russia’s e-visas are torturing Chinese people who love to travel to Russia," he said, adding that some of friends have reverted back to applying for the usual paper visa.

Editor: Kim Taylor