The Olympics in France did not cause a stir among Russian tourists

MTS Travel travel service based on depersonalized MTS Big Data analyzed the trips of Russians to France during the opening of the 2024 Olympic Games – in the penultimate week of July. Compared to the same period last year, the tourist flow decreased by 7%. Difficulties in obtaining visas, as well as restrictions imposed in Paris, could affect the negative dynamics.

Analysts of the MTS Travel travel service studied the trips of Russians to European countries in the penultimate week of July in 2024 – just before the start of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. France was in third place in the ranking of the most popular countries, its share in the total tourist flow to Europe was 8%. More often than in France during the analyzed period, Russians came only to Italy and Germany – their shares amounted to 14% and 11% of the total tourist flow to European countries. At the same time, compared with the penultimate week in 2023, the number of visits by Russians to France decreased by 7%, and, for example, to Italy and Germany increased by 29% and 11%, respectively. The overall dynamics of trips to Europe in the last week of July is -1% year-on-year.

The decrease in trips to France may be due to the longer procedure for issuing Schengen visas to Russians compared to last year. In addition, travel demand may be affected by restrictions on movement in Paris imposed before the start of the competition, as well as rising housing prices.

Nevertheless, among those Russians who came to France by the start of the Olympic Games (from July 22 to 26), about two thirds (63%) were Muscovites and residents of the Moscow region. Every tenth visit is made by residents of St. Petersburg. Another 5% of trips were made by residents of the Krasnodar Territory.

Almost two thirds (61%) of Russians came to France through other European countries. The rest had transplants in other countries. Among the most popular transit countries are Turkey (16% of all transfers on the way to France), Armenia (2%), Georgia (2%), the UAE (1%) and Azerbaijan (1%).

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