Foreigners travelling by sea will stay in Russia without a visa for 7 days

The term of stay in Russia of the tourists travelling by sea can be extended from three to seven days. According to Vedomosti, the amendments to the bill “On the rules of entry to and exit from the Russian Federation”, regulating this issue, are currently being considered by the State Duma.

The proposal to increase the period of stay for foreigners traveling on yachts, sports vessels and pleasure crafts was introduced by the Ministry of Transport. The key goal of the innovation is to increase the attractiveness of the maritime routes for tourists. As note the experts of the Ministry of Transport, three days is a very short term for which the sea captains cannot go the entire route along the Black Sea coast.

As note the authors of the amendments, the attraction of the additional number of tourists-yachtsmen will help to increase tax revenues at all levels, to raise incomes of the tourism industry and to create new jobs needed for the development of port infrastructure and maintenance of yachts.

The law on visa-free stay in Russia of foreign tourists arriving by yacht, sports vessels and pleasure crafts was adopted immediately after the law on visa-free stay of cruise ship passengers in 2013. The results of visa liberalization affected the statistics. For example, in 2015 the Passenger Port of St. Petersburg received 491,822 passengers – 2% more than in 2014. At the same time, 23% of the tourists were citizens of Germany, 15% – of the US, 13% – of the UK, 5% – of Italy and Spain and 3% of the tourists were citizens of France.