Citizens were sharply drawn to the east – Newspaper Kommersant No. 46 (7491) of 03/20/2023

The resumption of the issuance of all types of Chinese visas to Russians has caused a feverish demand. All free slots for filing documents ended in two days. Now in Moscow you can apply for a visa not earlier than in two months, in St. Petersburg – in a month. As expected, the number of hotel bookings by Russians in major Chinese cities also doubled. Experts predict that this year the tourist flow from Russia to China will be 30-40% of the pre-pandemic level. Raising this figure is hindered by limited air traffic.

The fact that all free slots for obtaining a visa to China were chosen by the applicants two days after the resumption of full-fledged work of the country’s visa centers in the Russian Federation, Yulia Otvagina, deputy head of the visa and migration department of Continent Express, and Marina Shirokova, head of the corporate department of Visahoda, told Kommersant . As of March 17, in Moscow, the nearest free date for filing documents is May 23, in St. Petersburg – April 20, Ms. Otvagina specified. “If places are vacated for the next dates due to the refusal of applicants, they are occupied by bots,” adds Marina Shirokova.

On the resumption of the issuance of all types of visas from March 15, the Chinese authorities announced the day before. Documents for business visas began to be accepted back in 2022, but a minimum number of them were issued, since an invitation issued by the Chinese migration services was required, says Yulia Otvagina. Now the approach has been simplified, but documents are accepted only twice a week, during which time only 400 applications are submitted. Getting a visa, according to Marina Shirokova, takes two to five days, depending on the tariff.

The highest demand is observed for business visas, market participants interviewed by Kommersant note.

Many representatives of Russian companies are trying to get to the Canton Fair, which takes place in Guangzhou on April 15 – May 5. In addition, due to the turn of Russian business (both export and import) to the east against the backdrop of hostilities in Ukraine, companies need to regularly negotiate with Chinese partners.

Managers from the FMCG industry, construction, mining, and manufacturing sectors mainly apply for business visas, notes Alina Protsenko, head of the Aeroclub visa support department. There is a high demand for business visas in China and among representatives of IT companies, adds Galina Polishchuk, managing director of Vipservice’s corporate business.

There is also a noticeable increase in demand for trips to China from independent tourists.

According to OneTwoTrip, now the destination forms 2% of the total volume of bookings of air tickets abroad, until March 15, the share was about 0.1%, and now China has risen from 50th to 12th place in the list of popular outbound destinations. According to the online service, 28% of all flight bookings in China are in Beijing, 23% in Shanghai and 18% in Guangzhou. Ostrovok.ru notes that in the first two weeks of March, the number of search queries for hotels in China increased six times compared to the same period in February, the number of bookings doubled. The average cost of living in Chinese hotels, according to the service, is 9.4 thousand rubles. per night.

Sales of organized tours to China are possible after the launch of a visa-free group exchange program for tourist groups, says Dmitry Gorin, vice president of the Russian Union of Travel Industry. “Interest in the destination is high, we receive a lot of calls, but mostly they concern beach holidays in Hainan,” says Intourist representative Daria Domostroyeva.

Mr. Gorin suggests that if the issue of visa-free groups is resolved by May, the outbound tourist flow to China this year could recover by 30-40% from the pre-pandemic level. Further growth is still constrained by limited air traffic: the current traffic volume is only 10–15% of the 2019 figure. It will not be so easy for Russian airlines to increase the volume, Dmitry Gorin states: “Only aircraft without double registration can fly to China, and Russian airlines have only 180 such boards.” But wide-body aircraft are already actively used for flights to Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Thailand and the Maldives. Now, direct flights from Aeroflot, Air China, China Eastern Airlines and Hainan Airlines are available to China, according to OneTwoTrip. At the same time, they specify in the service “I. Travel”, the average cost of a flight from Moscow to China and back is 47-55 thousand rubles.

Alexandra Mertsalova