Russia recorded a sharp decline in international tourism in the first half of 2026, with foreign visitors making 2.99 million tourist trips to the country between January and June - nearly 20% fewer than a year earlier.

The figure represents Russia’s weakest result since 2021, The Caspian Post reports via Kommersant.

The decline is being driven by a combination of geopolitical tensions, disruptions to air travel and high travel costs.

According to Russia’s Association of Tour Operators, inbound tourism fell by around 15% year-on-year, with the decline becoming even more pronounced during the summer season.

Russia’s main inbound tourism season runs from May through September, with China remaining the country’s largest source of international visitors.

According to Federal Security Service border service data, Chinese travelers accounted for 50.8% of foreign arrivals last year. Saudi Arabia ranked second with a 4.6% share, followed by Turkmenistan, Türkiye, Germany and the United Arab Emirates.

Russia’s Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) uses a different methodology that also counts arrivals from neighboring countries. Under that measure, Kazakhstan, China and Uzbekistan generated the largest number of visits to Russia.

Russia’s Ministry of Economic Development has proposed measuring inbound tourism by the number of foreign visitors staying in hotels. By that indicator, the number of foreign hotel guests increased by 23% in January-May. June figures have not yet been released.

Hotel operators, however, have not seen such a strong increase.

Azimut Hotels said the number of international guests has been declining, with the most noticeable drop coming from Middle Eastern markets.

Meanwhile, Alexander Biba, president of Cosmos Hotel Group, said the number of foreign guests at the group’s hotels increased by only 3.4% during January-June.

Experts attribute the decline in foreign tourism to the escalation of conflict in the Middle East, restrictions on air travel, disruptions at Russian airports, a stronger ruble and the high cost of traveling to Russia.

Marina Levchenko, CEO of Tari Tour, said interest in autumn trips remains, but actual bookings will depend heavily on the international situation.

Sergei Romashkin, vice-president of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia expects the current decline in inbound tourism to be difficult to fully recover by the end of the year.