Tourism Relationship between Russia and China

In 2000 an intergovernmental agreement was signed on visa-free group tourist trips between Russia and China. Such Visa-free program with China is unique for today and has no analogues in other countries (МБГ, 2014).

Figure 4: The number of tourists visiting Russia 2013-2014 (by country) Source: (МБГ, 2014).

Tours to the Russian Federation are popular among people of the People’s Republic of China.

China is ahead of Germany which for a long time held the first place in the number of tourists entering Russia (Ефремова, Чкалова, & Би, 2017).

0 50000 100000 150000 200000 250000 300000 350000 400000

China Germany USA United

Kingdom Turkey Italy Israel France Korea Finland 2013 2014

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For some time, the number of tourists from China to Russia has grown constantly. Chinese tourists are very interested in cultural tourism in general. In 2017, 296 thousand tourists from China within the visa-free exchange visited Moscow (for the period of 9 months), which is 15% more than during that period in 2016. 184 thousand people visited the Primorsky Krai³ which is 9% more than in 2016, Amur region⁴ - 93 thousand people which is 38 % more than in 2016 (Фадеичев, 2017).

The flow of Chinese tourists in the Russian Federation is constantly increasing, according to official data, the total number of Chinese citizens who visited Russia in 2016 was 2.6 million people, which is 70% more than in 2015. At the same time, more than 760 thousand Chinese citizens visited Russia as part of visa-free groups which is 41% more compared to the previous year. However, this number is mostly distributed across two Russian largest cities - Moscow and St. Petersburg (Джанджугазова, 2017).

In addition to the famous Moscow Kremlin and the famous palaces of Saint-Petersburg, Chinese tourists are also very interested in the Soviet past of modern Russia and monuments related to communist history (Lenta.ru, 2016). The idea of the project called “Red Tourism”

was developed in 2014 and it was included in the action plan for the implementation of the Strategy for the Development of Tourism in the Russian Federation until 2020. In general, the

3 Primorsky krai- located in the South of the Far East. In the west bordered with the People's Republic of China, in the South-West with the DPRK, and is washed by the Sea of Japan from the South and East.

4 Amur region- is a federal subject of Russia and is borders the People’s Republic of China.

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project is interesting for older generations. It is based on visiting the sites of revolutionary events, which are united by the “Red Route”, including memorable places associated with Lenin in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Ulyanovsk and Kazan (Джанджугазова, 2017). The growth of such a big number of Chinese tourists gives a rise to a need for qualified translators and audio guides in Chinese language. Rosturizm⁵ pointed out that they are already working on plan for training specialists and also working with university students (Lenta.ru, 2016).

Taking into account the interest of the Chinese people in Sochi and Crimea, the possibility of opening direct flights between Chinese cities with a resort city and delivery of tourists to the Crimea by sea is now being discussed (Ефремова, Чкалова, & Би, 2017).

China currently is in the third place in the world tourist rating and supplies Russia with the largest number of tourists. And while the number of Chinese tourists in Russia is growing, the number of Russian tourists in China is decreasing.

What are the main factors for Chinese tourists to come to Russia?

• Visa free for travel groups

• Weakening of the ruble

• Favorable environment for Chinese tourists (signs in Chinese language, menu in chinese language etc.)

• Security issues in Europe

5 Rosturizm- Russia based governmental travel organization.

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Among the factors hindering the entry of Chinese tourists into the Russian Federation, experts have named:

• Lack of information about Russia in China, including in the Chinese Internet space

• Insufficient adaptation of the service to Chinese tourists, including the lack of Chinese restaurants in the regions

• Lack of staff with knowledge of Chinese (Ефремова, Чкалова, & Би, 2017).

Russia created a program called “China Friendly”, which is the most important project of the Russian Federation to create a comfortable environment for Chinese tourists. Also, in March 22, 2016 in Moscow the Fourth Russian-Chinese Tourism Forum was held, and the topic was not only the quantity, but also the quality of the tourist flow from China to Russia. According to Deputy Head of Rosturizm Sergey Korneev the number of Chinese tourists from Russia in the last three years in a row had already exceeded 1 million, and for the last five years the increase was 21%, within the program of simplified visa regime- 63%. However, mostly elder people visit Russia who still remembers USSR, however younger generation still prefers other countries (Lenta.ru, 2016).

With the positive dynamics of Chinese tourists visiting Russia, the share of the Russian Federation in the total outbound flow from China is about 1%, which shows the need for a huge range of work to attract Chinese tourists. Many countries already actively working in this direction today. For example, countries like Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Finland and other countries are conducting large-scale marketing activities aimed at targeting Chinese tourists to their countries (Ефремова, Чкалова, & Би, 2017).

To sum up the points discussed above scholar Leksina provides some fair questions: “What is China for us: an ally, a strategic partner or a friend that combines both qualities? In my opinion, there is no such thing as a "friend" as such in world politics, since each state places its national interests at the center of the matter; Union can only be within a certain time interval, there is no need to talk about an eternal union”. Russia and China are strategic

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partners now who’s global goals are very similar and who do not have strong disagreements (Лексина Е. , 2015).

Russia is unable to manage its internal weaknesses and that means it has a need to depend on China politically and economically. It is impossible that Russia will make alliances with other powers like NATO or EU or USA against China and this is due to these alliances being much more dependent on China than on Russia. It is hard for Russia to admit becoming China’s

“little brother”. All evidence shows that China is more important for Russia than the other way around (Nojonen, 2011).