Russia returned visa-free travel with China, but there were awkward moments

Russia is expanding the “group visa-free regime”: from Monday, citizens of the Russian Federation will be able to travel as part of a tourist group without a visa to China and Iran, while the Chinese and Iranians will be able to visit us.

Simultaneously with the actual launch of the exchange of tourists with China and Iran (officially, the visa-free agreement with these countries entered into force on August 1, but the organizational moments delayed its implementation), the Russian Federation resumes direct flights to the Chinese resort island of Hainan, and at the same time offers a similar type of “tourist friendship” with India and its favorite Russian resort state of Goa.

First of all, consular experts are asked not to get confused in terminology: the group visa-free agreement is an opportunity for two countries to exchange tourist groups without individual visas, but with one collective, according to the list. From which in itself it follows that this is an organized group following the vouchers of one travel agency, flying one route on one flight. A list of tour operators entrusted with such activities is submitted by each party and approved, no amateur activity. All interested Russians will be able to go on such trips to China and Iran from August 14th.

– For those who remember the system of foreign trips in Soviet times, nothing new, the same group visa, on which Soviet tourists organized travel to the countries of the socialist camp, – says a Russian consular expert on visa regimes. – The program of such trips is also reminiscent of the Soviet integrated approach to recreation: the first part must certainly be educational and developing – excursions, to each museum for a day, etc. And only then beach or some other relaxation.

The larger the group, the more interesting such a race is for both the sending and receiving parties (for the first, with each new tourist, the cost of a ticket per person decreases, and for the second, the more guests, the more money spent on its territory). For these reasons, it is likely that groups of 15 people or more will gather, as is already the case in China. And it’s unprofitable to drag such a crowd to distant lands for just a week, so the travel time will be from 10-15 days.

As for India, it has not yet given an official response to the Russian proposal for a mutual visa-free regime, but in an unofficial field, it considers it beneficial.

– In February, on the contrary, we tightened the visa regime for Russians, – says a representative of the tourism industry in the resort state of Goa. – But the measures are directed precisely against individual tourists who, using our visa concessions, stay in our country for several years in a row, while not bringing money to it, but, on the contrary, taking away bread from the local population with their illegal business.

After the February changes, Russians can stay in India for a total of no more than 180 days a year. Even if they didn’t sit for half a year without getting out, but left and returned. In this sense, organized large groups of tourists, arriving for a period of no more than two weeks, are only beneficial for our tourism industry. After all, they will visit everything in the same organized way, and not just sit in Goa, right? And this means that historical, architectural, museum and other shrines throughout India will also be able to earn money on group tours.

– The group is good, – says Yao Mai, a Russian-speaking guide from Hainan Island, where we Russians will soon fly non-stop from Moscow, Vladivostok and five Siberian cities. – A group is a single group ticket to museums, passage according to the list to all sorts of attractions, conveniently and with a guarantee. Objects receive a bank transfer, and we, small workers of a big cause, receive a small bank transfer for tea. Vacationers are usually kind.

But it was precisely in the group advantages voiced by the “little worker of a big cause” that the Russians saw the main disadvantages of such a tourist friendship. And not only at a party, but also at home.

– If you, say, came with a group to Hainan, – 46-year-old Ekaterina from Orel, who knows China and the Chinese well, explains her claims to this type of vacation, – then you will no longer be able to disconnect from this group for a short time to go to mainland China.

Firstly, this requires a separate visa, which is obtained not directly on the spot, but in advance. And secondly, if the Chinese would somehow meet halfway and issue a general Chinese visa on the spot, then a person from the group will definitely not be given it. Or the whole group, or no one. Fending off a group is not Chinese. They don’t trust this person.

Even if someone accidentally strayed from the group route, he will be immediately detained by the police and will be held until his guide picks him up. And then they will also be fined – and the tourist, and the tour operator, and the guide at the same time.

– Yes, group visa-free travel is not just a group crossing the border according to the list, but further according to interests, – Marina from Moscow, who visited Iran in this format, agrees with Ekaterina. – Everywhere you walk in a bunch. On domestic transfers, if there is no one, then no one goes anywhere.

And in the wake of the arrival of the first such group of Chinese in Moscow on August 10, the Russians remembered that “group visa-free” is fraught with problems not only at a party, but also at home.

“With China, we already had a group visa-free regime before the pandemic, now it has just been resumed,” says Vlad, a sinologist guide in Moscow and St. Petersburg. – And with these giant Chinese bands there are continuous problems. Not only because they are noisy and create queues and pandemonium everywhere.

Chinese tourism is arranged in such a way that only the Chinese themselves earn on it, even if they go abroad. Before the pandemic, Chinese groups arrived with their own guides and bus drivers, and some even with their own buses. They settled only in Chinese hotels (Russian hotels with Chinese capital), ate only in Chinese restaurants with Chinese owners, etc.

At the same time, all payments for all services were made by bank transfer in China, and the tourists themselves had only one matryoshka in cash in their wallets, what kind of tip. If they continue to do so now, we will again begin to feed the Chinese tourism industry, and not our own.