BEIJING (Sputnik) — The increase in the number of Russian tourists who visited China in the first quarter of 2017 under visa-free regime amounted to 98 percent as compared to the same period last year, Deputy Head of the Russian Federal Agency for Tourism (Rosturism) Nikolai Korolyov said Friday.
"We are very pleased to note that the first quarter of this year was marked with continued growth. In the first quarter of 2017, the growth of the number of Chinese citizens entering Russia using visa-free formalities amounted to 65 percent [compared to the same period last year], and the increase in [numbers of] Russian citizens traveling to China in the first quarter amounted to 98 percent," Korolyov told reporters.
According to Korolyov, around 1,288,000 of Chinese citizens traveled to Russia in 2016, while some 1,676,000 Russians visited China during the last year.
Additionally, the Rosturism deputy head said that Russia and China wanted to link tourism exchange information bases of the two countries through moving from printed lists to electronic versions, which would simplify a lot of formalities and contribute to further growth of the amount of tourist trips between the two countries.
Korolyov stressed that the development of tourist exchange with China was a strategic task.
