Los viajeros en tránsito extranjero podrán permanecer en Rusia durante 72 horas sin una visa

Committee of the State Duma approved the law that would allow transit passengers to stay in Russia for 72 hours without a visa, – reports the agency RIA Novosti. After passing the law could come into force July 1, 2014.

The bill authors are confident that this measure will significantly increase the revenues of tourism industry due to the transit passengers. For example, in one of her speeches the Deputy Minister of Russian Culture Alla Manilowa noted: “The projection of tourist flow growth is based on the experience of foreign countries, experienced similar measures on themselves. Also, we analyzed the typical behavior of tourists from those countries for which we plan to introduce the visa-free 72 hours; as a result we imagine the potential growth in tourist flow from each of these countries after the introduction of these measures.”

In practical terms this means that under the most pessimistic scenario, the growth of tourism revenue by increasing the number of transit tourists after the law comes into force range from 15 billion rubles per year.

The bill’s authors’ rightness is confirmed by the experience of St. Petersburg: after the introduction of the rule allowing ferry passengers to stay in the city during 72 hours without a visa, the number of foreign tourists in the city increased by 30%, – reports the portal “Turprom”.

Among the countries, whose citizens will be subject to the law are France, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Finland, USA, South Korea, Japan and others.

The preliminary list of airports that will be able to receive such passengers includes “Pulkovo”, the airports of Vladivostok and Khabarovsk, as well as major Moscow airports, “Sheremetyevo”, “Domodedovo” and “Vnukovo”.