China seeks visa-free tourism with Russia
China is seeking a visa-free regime with Russia in order to boost ties between the countries and ensure a greater balance of tourism between them. The number of Chinese tourists visiting Russia has doubled in the last two years and now exceeds 1.1m a year. Each Chinese visitor to Russia spends approximately $2,000.  China aims to send five million tourists a year, amounting to $10bn in income for Russia. There has been a decline in tourism from Russia to China due to economic problems in the former country.

“We want to make tourism another means of bolstering our ties with Russia and easing visa controls is one way of making this happen,” Gui Congyou, the head of the Ministry’s European-Central Asian Affairs department, told Russian journalists on Tuesday.

Gui Congyou mentioned the recent steps in this direction made by the two countries, including the lifting of visa requirements for groups of five tourists and more.

“We are going to continue easing the bilateral visa regime for tourists all the way to abolishing visas altogether,” he said, adding that the number of Chinese tourists visiting Russia in the past two years had gone up by twice, exceeding 1.1 million a year.