Media: Russian tour operators are asked to simplify the entry of foreign tourists – RIA Novosti

MOSCOW, March 1 -. RIA Novosti Russian travel companies are asking the Foreign Ministry to simplify entry to foreign travelers, in particular, they propose to introduce electronic visa and give Europeans the possibility of visa-free transit, wrote on Tuesday the newspaper “Kommersant”.

According to media reports, the corresponding letter from eight travel companies, including Intourist Thomas Cook, City Sightseeing Moscow, “Academservice”, sent Foreign Minister of Russia Sergey Lavrov.

“The first step for the unilateral liberalization of the visa regime should be measures to introduce electronic visas and visas issued on arrival, the authors of the letter write, a copy of which is at.” b “Moreover, in their opinion, for citizens of Western European countries may operate a system of transit visa-free stay in Russia for 72 hours “, -. to be the Mother of newspaper

According to the authors of the letter, these measures will have a strong support to the Russian inbound tourism and increase the number of foreign visitors. Thus, the general director of “Academservice” Alexander Kurnosov believes that the full abolition of visas would increase inbound flow into Russia from Europe and the United States by 30-40%. The general director of Intourist Thomas Cook Leonid Marmer expects the abolition of visas will increase the number of tourists from European countries is 25-30% in the first year.

The idea of ​​simplifying the visa regime in Russia is not new. The head of the Federal Tourism Agency Oleg Safronov last summer at a meeting in Simferopol to discuss the topic of introduction of electronic visas. State Duma deputies proposed to simplify the entry to Russia for tourists coming to major sporting and cultural events, and staying in Russia no more than 15 days. President Vladimir Putin, in turn, gave the order to abolish visas for tourists from BRICS countries, but the initiative had not been realized.

Technically, the EU and Russia visa dialogue is frozen because of the conflict in Ukraine. At the same time Moscow is based on the principles of reciprocity, demanding to Russians the same preferences, which is ready to give to foreigners.

Many Western politicians urged Brussels to return to the discussion of visa facilitation with Russia, appealing not only to the political, but also to financial aspects of the problem – tourism brings significant cash infusion in the budget of any country

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