Russian tourists flock back to Europe

Despite the war in Ukraine, France, Italy and Spain, the Russian tourists return their preferred holiday destinations to Europe.

The three travel hotspots are all NATO and EU members and have imposed sanctions on Moscow.

The hotel stay of Russians in Italy and France rose by more than 19 percent last year, which the Ukrainian diplomats collapsed as “disturbing” and a security risk.

But France, which leads the “coalition of the willing” nations, which supports Ukraine with Great Britain, defends the borders for rich Russian tourists, as well as Italy.

The trend was unveiled by telegraph analysis of data about hotel room stays and rentals on websites such as Booking.com and Airbnb as well as Visa that were exhibited at the Schengen Free Bode zone of the EU.

VSEVOLOD Kertsov, the ambassador of Ukraine in the EU, warned that ignoring the returning Russians would be “short -sighted” and dangerous.

He told the telegraph: “In the fourth year of the aggression war against Russia against Ukraine, it is extremely surprising to see that statistics show an increase in the number of visas published by Russian citizens and growth in tourism from Russia to EU countries.

“We know that the Russian society overwhelmes the war. In addition, it is proceeding that Russia in the war with the West and not with Ukraine, where the Russian army commits war crimes on a massive scale.”

He added: “With the increasing number of cyber attacks by Russia against EU member states, sabotage files and all kinds of hybrid activities that aim at the undermining of European democracies, it is worrying that Russian citizens can easily enjoy the advantages of traveling to Europe.

“To ignore this reality is short -sighted. It is a question of European security.”

Fires in camps, which are known that they are part of logistical supply chains, have taken place all over Europe, also in Great Britain, while there were also reports on Sabotated railway tracks.

In the past, Russian spies, which are bounded as diplomats, were associated with these incidents, but since the Skripals 2018 poisoning, it has been known that Moscow also uses agents for tourist visas.

Stop EU -Visa for Russians

Sir William Browder is an English financier born in America who has become anti-Tutin activist and activist. He asked France, Italy and Spain to stop visas to Russians.

“If the Russians cannot demonstrate in a visa interview that they are against the Putin regime, they shouldn’t come to Europe,” he said.

European capitals have hit the Kremlin with sanction waves since Putin started its illegal invasion in 2022.

Both Britain and the EU excluded their airspace to Russian airlines and triggered a decline in the number of tourists. There are still dozens of routes to Europe through Turkey, Georgia, Serbia and other countries.

In order to get to Rome, for example, a Russian tourist in Turkey or in the VAE would have to stop by and switch the flights.

The additional costs made the journey of most ordinary Russians outside the range, but those who make it in Europe also have difficulties due to the sanctions, which means that their bank cards do not work.

However, Istanbul Airport is full of currency exchanges, where Russians can exchange rubles for euros in order to maintain their visits to Europe.

“There are many Russians who support the war, and especially the Russians who have money,” said Sir William.

“What we absolutely don’t want to do is that these Russians enjoy the privileges and resources of Europe while supporting Putin’s war effort at the same time.”

“Europe should be open to people in the Russian opposition who are persecuted, but there should be no visa of Russian oligarchs or mini-cooks and others who support Putin, and I think we should be wrong in this regard on the side of the non-visa emission.”

He said that the derivation of Visa would exert pressure on Putin’s regime and reduce the security risk, which is based on the hybrid war against Russia against the West.

Undermine sanctions

Sir William said that the EU governments should be consistent, because if a country grants a Schengen visa, the supposed tourist can travel anywhere in the pass-free zone.

The western governments hesitated to issue direct travel bans, except in the case of sanctioned people such as Putin’s buddies and apparatus.

In contrast, the Baltic Nations and Pro-Ukraine countries, which bordered to Ukraine and Russia, stopped a tourist visa to Russia or severely restricted their numbers.

Jan Lipavsky, Foreign Minister of the Czech Republic, accused those who welcomed Russian holidaymakers to undermine the EU’s sanctions against Moscow for wealthy tourist money.

He said to The Telegraph: “It can be seen deeply that some EU countries return to business with Russian tourists, as usual, while Ukraine continues to suffer from brutal aggression.

“The Czech Republic has taken on a fundamental attitude – we do not edit a tourist visual applications and we believe that this should be the standard in the European Union.”

Mr. Lipavsky said that the number of tourists who came to the EU last year was “completely excessive” and made serious concerns, “not only for security reasons, but also from a moral perspective”.

He said: “With such volumes, we cannot rule out that the possibilities that people are involved in war crimes are on vacation in our resorts. This is unacceptable.”

He added: “I also see that some countries have a self-in-house motif, they want the income from Russian tourism. It’s not just about visa fees; it’s about money that is spent on hotels, purchases, tickets, etc.. Russians are known for spending a lot.

“This undermines the credibility of our sanction regime and sends a confusing news about our values.”

Lifeline for dissidents

Andrei Soldatov is Senior Fellow in the think tank of the Center for European Policy Analysis and a Russian investigative journalist who specializes in the activities of the Kremlin secret services.

He said the visas were valuable for dissidents and families they wanted to visit abroad.

He said: “It is a problem that has no easy solution. These are also the countries that help people with anti-wick views.

“To make it safe to these people, you have to hide your applications in a current of other applications. You cannot really expect that a Russian dissident will come a foreign message for a” dissident visa “given the high oppression in the country.”

Popular places

In the entire EU, visitors are only a tenth of what they were before pandemic and invasion in 2019, but this essentially varies in the block.

In 2024, according to the EURostat, only six EU countries recorded an increase in the guest business booked by Russians via websites such as Airbnb.

Italy recorded the largest increase of 18.9 percent with 321,678 guest species throughout the year, the highest in Europe.

With 203,072 guest evening, France remains the third -party place for Russian tourists per year, which corresponds to an increase of 7.8 percent – the fourth highest spike in Europe.

Spain is second place with 259,068 guest nights, which decreases by 3.6 percent the previous year. This emerges from the figures of the EU statistics authority.

The number of nights booked by Russians in Hungary who have a government that is notoriously soft for Putin.

The United Kingdom, whose data distinguishes the EU of the EU slightly, would be on the list to Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, Greece and Cyprus visitors in Russia.

In contrast to France and Italy, the number of visitors fell by around 1.3 percent compared to the National Statistics Office compared to the previous year.

Other statistics that do not deal with nights in the Airbnb style indicate that France organizes 27 percent of the level in 2019, compared to only 9.8 percent in the United Kingdom.

Great Britain has always committed Russian tourists to apply for Visa, even if it was part of the EU. It never joined Schengen.

Schengen members also demand that Russians receive visas. There was an agreement that made it faster and cheaper to preserve this tourist visa for the EU, but it was suspended after Putin entered Ukraine.

The analysis of the Schengen area visa also showed that Italy and France led the tourism of tourism to Russia.

Italy published 152,254 Schengen -Visa at his two Russian consulates last year, which was almost 19,000 more than in 2023.

According to the European Commission, France gave a total of 123, 890, 25,000 more than in the previous year. Spain experienced 111,527, an increase of 15,000.

The figures, which were first reported by the EU Observer website, showed a back rash in Schengen -Visa for Russians with 552,630, which were published in total last year, an increase of nine percent. Greece published 59,703 Visa and Hungary 23,382.

Rome and Paris Reulerated

“Italy continues to exhibit Russian tourists who meet our requirements,” said a spokesman for Antonio Tajani, Italian Foreign Minister and deputy prime minister.

“Our opposition is against the military operations of the Russian army in Ukraine, not against the Russian people.”

The statistics were presented to the Elysée, but did not respond to inquiries about comments. France previously defended visas against Russians.

“People and cultural bindings can play a positive role in promoting mutual understanding and dialogue between population groups,” the French Foreign Ministry told EU Observer.

“We are working hard to keep a differentiation between the regime responsible for the war and the population, its civil society and the opposition,” it said.

“It is important to maintain this window and enable Russian society to gain access to a variety of reliable sources of information.”

The British and Spanish government was asked for a comment. The European Commission said they couldn’t comment, even though it was in the foreground for 72 hours because it was summer.

Eurostat, the EU’s statistical body, has collected data about the number of guest species that have been spent in “Collaborative Economy Platforms”, including locations such as Airbnb and Expedia since 2018.

The British office for national statistics has collected similar data since mid -2023, which means that the numbers are not available before the invasion and may exist between the two bodies.

Data on more comprehensive hotel stays across Europe were not updated in 2024 for the entire whole of Europe.

Additional reporting by Josephine McKenna, Henry Samuel, James Badcock and Kieran Kelly