Tourism India-Russia: Soon visa free?

Russia is working on a mutual visa-free travel exchange with India.

This was stated by the head of the Federal Tourism Agency, Oleg Safonov, on the Eastern Economic Forum, which was held in Vladivostok on September 2-3, 2016. “We offer the same mechanism as with China in the direction of cooperation with India and Iran. It is really a good mechanism, which is shown to be effective,” he said.

Agreement between the governments of Russia and China on visa-free tourist travel in the framework of organized groups (via travel agency) was signed in 2000.

On the feasibility of such a solution, Oleg Safonov said on the eve of the Eastern Economic Forum, which will be held in Vladivostok on September 2-3. He noted that 16 years ago an agreement was signed between the governments of Russia and China on visa-free group tourist trips, which fully proved its effectiveness. Today, China is the leader in the number of tourists visiting the Russian Federation. Over the last 5 years of the entry flow of tourists from China grew more than 4.5 times, and for the past three years, he has more than 1 million people a year.

Positive experience speaks in favor of extending the mechanism of group visa-free travel to the country, promising in terms of increasing tourist arrivals in Russia. We propose to implement the same mechansim as we had with China with our startegic in-boumd tourism partners namely India, Iran and Vietnam “, – said the head of the Federal Tourism Agency, Oleg Safonov.