ATOR reported a 12-fold increase in demand for vaccine tours abroad

Among Russians, vaccine tours to European countries have become very popular, where entry is allowed with Russian certificates of vaccination against COVID-19 , the demand for them has grown tenfold. This was reported to Izvestia by Dmitry Gorin, Vice President of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR).

According to him, this is due to the fact that most European countries and the United States do not yet accept citizens with a Russian certificate, and Russians want to be vaccinated with a WHO-approved drug to travel there. “Our statistics show that last year 7.7 million people left Russia for the purpose of tourism. Of these, for the purpose of vaccine tourism - no more than 20 thousand. Now at least 10 thousand people leave Russia for vaccine tours every month. The same number of people travel on their own,” he said.

As Izvestiya clarifies, among the popular destinations for vaccine tourism in Europe among Russian citizens are: without visas - Serbia; with visas - Croatia, Bulgaria, Greece, Germany; in the near abroad - Armenia.

At the same time, Alexei Kurinny, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Healthcare, noted that vaccine tourism is not yet as developed in Russia, since Sputnik Light and Sputnik V have not yet been recognized by WHO and the European regulator EMA. “As soon as our vaccine is recognized, the number of people wishing to be vaccinated with our drugs will increase. Citizens of Russia go abroad for vaccinations for exactly the reason that our vaccine is not yet recognized in Europe, ”the politician specified.