On January 30, 2014 in Moscow the head of the Federal Tourism Agency Alexander Radkov gave a press conference on the results of 2013 and prospects for development of the travel industry in 2014.

In 2013, growth of domestic tourist traffic was approximately 6-8%, of inbound - 10%, and outbound - 15%. Last year among the foreigners increase bookings of Russia was 25%. Tourists from China, USA, Canada and France visited our country most actively. Most often foreign travelers visited Moscow, St. Petersburg, Krasnodar, Moscow region and the republic of Tatarstan. Such statistics was announced during a press conference, according to one of the travel portals data.

Mr. Radkov also expressed an opinion that after the Olympics the number of tourists in Russia can grow. "But everything will depend on how the resort will be positioned. It is important to promote the summer beach vacations in summer and skiing holidays - in winter, as well as business tourism that has all-season character,"- he said.

The Minister noted that Rostourism carries out extensive work to attract foreign tourists to Russia. The agency permanently takes part in major international exhibitions, organizes some business activities, and promotes the tourism potential of our country via mass media (television, print, web). Alexander Radkov also noted the importance of creating Rostourism missions abroad, but this idea hasn’t been supported by the Ministry of Finance yet.

The head of the Federal Tourism Agency also said that according to the federal program this year the development of domestic tourism will be spent twice as much money than last year. So, in 2013 it was allocated 2 billion 487 million rubles in the federal budget for the development of tourism, and this year Ministry plans to spend 4 billion 359 million rubles.

Adopted from TOURBUS.RU