The first joint India-Russia consultations on the launch of visa-free tourist exchange will be held in June, followed by a bilateral agreement by the end of the year.
During the sidelines of the International Economic Forum’ Russia – Islamic World: KazanForum 2024′ in Kazan, the Russian Economic Development Ministry’s Department of Multilateral Economic Cooperation and Special Projects, Nikita Kondratyev said that Moscow and New Delhi were set to strengthen their tourism ties by launching visa, VisaGuide.World reports.
India is at the final stage of internal state coordination.
As reported by Russian Today, Kondratyev further noted that Russia plans to repeat the success of visa-free tourism exchanges already established with China and Iran.
In February last year, the authorities in Russia and China renewed the agreement on visa-free group tours. Following the new decision, tourists organized in groups of five to 50 people had the right to travel to their neighbouring country without having to apply for a visa first and stay there for a period of up to 15 days.
Moreover, business tourism is one of the most promising sectors in Moscow, the Russian capital. Thus, last year, the Russian capital was visited by a total of 3.7 million business tourists – which means seven percent more than in 2022.
Similarly, India also remains one of the leaders among visitors from non-CIS countries in terms of the number of traveler businesses.
Data provided by the Deputy Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation Dmitry Volvach, from January to September 2023, Russian tourists made more than 60,000 trips to India.
These data further show that one figure exceeded the results of the entire year 2022 when Russians made 50,000 trips to India. On the other hand, Indian citizens made 24,000 trips to Russia in 2024.
Commenting on these data, the Deputy Minister also expressed hope that Indian tourists will become more active in visiting Russia, as India has been included in the list of 55 countries for which a single electronic visa is available for entry into the Russian Federation. This visa provides from August 1 a stay in Russia for up to 16 days.
During the same period, Moscow and Tehran also launched a visa-free group tourist exchange from August 1.
