The tourist flow from African countries to Russia has increased by almost 60 over the past two years.%

Over the past two years, the tourist flow to Russia from African countries has increased by more than one and a half times, Deputy Director General of the Center for Strategic Research (CSR) Yulia Maksutova told Izvestia on February 28.

For many African countries, tourism is a rapidly growing economic sector. At the same time, there is a demand among African tourists to travel to Russia, especially in the light of active business and educational exchanges.

"Africa is a promising tourism market that we have not yet mastered. There are more than 50 countries on the mainland, all of them interesting in their own way. Citizens of Botswana, Cape Verde, Mauritius, Namibia, Tunisia, South Africa and the Seychelles already have a visa-free entry regime to Russia. The geography of flights to Africa is expanding: Russia is connected by direct flights to Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, the Seychelles and Ethiopia — there are 143 flights from Russia to these countries (128 of them to Egypt), and 144 to Russia (128 from Egypt)," Maksutova said.

Thoros and sunshine: what will surprise tourists with ice-covered Baikal

Report from the Irkutsk side of the great lake

According to her, over the past two years, the tourist flow from African countries has increased by almost 60%, but it still remains quite modest — a total of about 37 thousand trips per year.

"Africans often limit their choice of travel destinations to neighboring countries. They often come to Russia for educational and medical tourism purposes. As for Russians, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia are popular among them. It is noteworthy that Africa has a very rich gastronomic culture, but there are no restaurants serving Russian cuisine, so our gastronomic potential can play an important role in tourist exchanges," she explained.

The CSR, together with the Ministry of Economic Development, is promoting the Russian tourism potential in friendly countries and is working to create sustainable tourist flows.

"So far, the share of African tourists in the inbound tourist flow to our country is less than 1%. The creation of a Russian-African working group on tourism in the Central African Republic can be a good help to improve mutual tourist flows," the expert said.

Earlier, on February 23, experts from the OneTwoTrip travel planning service told Izvestia about popular spring destinations. According to their information, Russians are more likely to choose Sochi, Lake Ladoga and Dagestan for recreation. Among the foreign destinations, the experts singled out Egypt, Japan and Turkey.