The site tourism-review.com published today a list of the top five most popular destinations for Russians over the first nine months of 2008, according to the Russian Union of Travel Industry. They are, in descending order: Turkey (1.98 million); China (1.53 million); Egypt (957,000); Finland (530,000), and Italy (326,000).
The list isn't all that surprising, though I'll admit that I'd expected the UAE and Montenegro to be on the list, and I was curious to know if the considerable Russian tourist presence I sighted in the Dominican Republic last December might have resulted in a placement. It will be interesting to revisit these numbers next year and track the longer-term effects of the economic crisis on Russian tourism patterns.
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