Despite six months of intense sanctions against Russia, the ruble is strong, revenues are buoyant and domestic transportation is doing well.
But Russians who want to go on vacation find traditional destinations less accessible, due to the increasing difficulty of obtaining visas, the closure of airspace to Russian airlines and the fact that Russian bank cards no longer work abroad.
why are we writing this
Amid war and sanctions, Russians have been deprived of many of their favorite vacation spots this summer. That has sparked a boom in travel to destinations within their vast homeland.
Therefore, there is a race to discover Russia.
Tour operators report an increase in bookings, especially for traditional destinations like cruises on the Volga River and beach vacations in the Black Sea resorts of Krasnodar and Sochi. In Moscow, there are more Russians than ever walking through Red Square, wandering through museums and galleries, and taking selfies in iconic metro stations. Other rich cultural centers like Saint Petersburg are experiencing similar booms.
“We expect up to 45 million Russians to travel within the country this year. That’s ten times the number going to Turkey, which is the main foreign destination still open to Russians,” says travel agency director Sergei Romashkin. “We are seeing people going to the Far East, to Siberia, to the North Caucasus, to Karelia [on the Finnish border]and Kaliningrad [on the Baltic Sea]. Completely new destinations have suddenly become fashionable.”
Every day, people from all over Russia climb several flights of stairs in an old apartment building in central Moscow. Along the way, they often stop to gawk at the thick layers of fantastical graffiti with metaphysical themes, much of it dating back to the Soviet era, scribbled down by generations of Muscovites.
At the top of the stairs is one of Moscow’s most popular tourist destinations, the memorabilia-filled former communal apartment where author Mikhail Bulgakov lived and worked a century ago. Today it is a state museum, the graffiti on the stairs is a sign of the locals’ appreciation for Bulgakov’s beloved, sometimes absurd, philosophical writings.
And there has been a significant increase in visitors this year as Russians, increasingly frustrated in their hopes of traveling abroad, turn their attention to discovering their own country, says Alexei Yakovlev, deputy director of the Bulgakov State Museum.
why are we writing this
Amid war and sanctions, Russians have been deprived of many of their favorite vacation spots this summer. That has sparked a boom in travel to destinations within their vast homeland.
Despite six months of intense sanctions, the ruble is strong, employment and incomes are surprisingly buoyant, and national transport networks are functioning well. But vacation-minded people are finding traditional destinations much less attainable than before, due to the increasing difficulty of obtaining visas in many countries, the widespread closure of airspace to Russian airlines, and the fact that Russian bank cards no longer work. beyond the borders of the country. .
Therefore, there is an apparent rush to discover Russia. And the apartment-museum dedicated to Bulgakov, the most widely read author in Russian high school curricula, and whose focus on basic moral questions may resonate in these controversial times, is just one of those attractions benefiting.
“Bulgakov was concerned with what makes a person complete; His work is about people on the edge, who need to make decisions,” says Mr. Yakovlev. “He lived in the middle of the civil war, the arrival of Stalinism, and some may feel that the times are similar. Therefore, the importance of him is growing. We try to avoid addressing contemporary political issues head-on, because there might be forces that might want to use us for their own ends. We focus on literature, science, memory, and let Bulgakov’s legacy speak for itself.”
exploring the homeland
Tour operators report an increase in bookings, especially for traditional destinations like Volga River cruises and beach vacations in the Black Sea resorts of Krasnodar and Sochi, although wartime conditions and Ukrainian attacks have caused a strong reduction in travel to the newly annexed territory of Crimea.
And in Moscow, there are far more Russians than ever walking through Red Square, wandering through the city’s famous museums and galleries, and taking selfies in its iconic metro stations. Other rich cultural centers such as St. Petersburg and central Russia’s “Golden Ring” constellation of ancient cities, with their ornate kremlins and fortress-like monasteries, are experiencing similar booms.
“We expect up to 45 million Russians to travel within the country this year. That is ten times the number going to Turkey, which is the main foreign destination still open to Russians,” says Sergei Romashkin, director of the Moscow-based Delphin travel agency. “In the past, Russians thought of traveling mainly in terms of going abroad, because it seemed more exotic and the conditions used to be much better than at home. For a variety of reasons, change is taking place, and it could well become permanent.”
Tour operators also report surprisingly strong demand, especially among young people, for a host of domestic destinations that most Russians have never considered places worth visiting, and where the local population has little hotel industry and tourism infrastructure. to receive them. .
“We are seeing people going to the Far East, to Siberia, to the North Caucasus, to Karelia [on the Finnish border]and Kaliningrad [on the Baltic Sea]. Entirely new destinations have suddenly become fashionable,” says Mr. Romashkin.
nation of destinations
If you had to limit yourself to just one country, Russia, the world’s largest nation by land area, would not be a bad choice, at least from a tourist’s point of view.
On its wild Pacific coast, the California-sized Kamchatka Peninsula is a land of pristine forests, volcanoes, and giant bears.
Ilya Naymushin/Reuters/File
In the heart of Siberia is Lake Baikal, the deepest lake in the world, once declared sacred by the Mongol warlord Genghis Khan. Around its shores are thriving communities of indigenous Buddhists and Old Believers who were once banished to Siberia by the Tsars.
Kazan, a Tatar city on the Volga, is fast becoming another magnet for Russian tourists drawn by its sandy beaches and the only kremlin in Russia with a giant mosque in its center.
Russia’s North Caucasus region, until recently mired in war and terrorism, is emerging as an unexpected tourist attraction. Tour operators say even Dagestan, until recently a virtually off-limits zone where visitors were more likely to be kidnapped than welcome, has become a major destination for young Russians drawn to its mountain trails, ancient ruins and sandy beaches. Caspian Sea sand.
Another recently popular region is Russia’s European Arctic, where adventurous tourists can see the northern lights or take a ride on a nuclear icebreaker.
Russia’s Baltic exclave of former German Kaliningrad boasts Prussian architecture and miles of Baltic Sea beaches.
“No one wants to be locked up”
Sarah Lindemann-Komarova is an American who has lived in Siberia for almost 30 years. She resides in Altai, an impoverished mountainous republic that abuts the Mongolian border. In 2019, she received about 2 million tourists, including many foreigners. This year the number has doubled, but only Russians come, mostly on newly opened flights from Moscow and St. Petersburg. Prices have skyrocketed and infrastructure is a challenge, she says.
“Our Manzherok village was a sleepy, poor backwater when I first came here in 2001,” he says. “Only a few nature-loving visitors appreciated the region, which some people refer to as the Switzerland of Russia. Now those people are horrified by the traffic jams and the loss of solitude. … But it is providing real economic help for the local population. Many villagers have become small business owners, building cabins for rent, offering various services. This is a community in transition.”
It’s hard to know if the trend will last, especially if the world opens up for Russians again. Mr. Yakovlev of the Bulgakov Museum says it is fortuitous that external pressures are forcing Russians to discover their own country, and it’s hard to argue with the economic stimulus that tourism can bring to once-neglected remote Russian regions.
“Maybe for now people don’t really feel the effects of the lockdown, because everything is so new and this is a terribly big country,” he says. “But eventually it’s going to have an impact. No one wants to be locked up and isolated like we were in the Soviet Union.”