MOSCOW, Jan 15 (Bernama-Xinhua) -- The flow of Russian tourists to the United States will effectively cease for an indefinite period due to Washington's visa service suspension, the Russian Union of Travel Industry (RST) said Wednesday, reported Xinhua.
The US announced Wednesday that it would suspend visa processing for 75 countries, including Russia, effective Jan 21, according to a US State Department memo.
The RST noted that US visa services in Russia had already been unavailable before the formal suspension, with applicants forced to submit their visa applications through third countries.
Alexander Bragin, head of the Russian Association of Tour Aggregators, said that the United States has not been a popular travel destination among Russian tourists in recent years, due to visa application hurdles.
"Last year, bookings for US hotels and air tickets made by Russian travellers through domestic tourist aggregators accounted for less than 1 per cent of the total number of outbound travel bookings," Bragin noted.
--BERNAMA-XINHUA
BERNAMA provides up-to-date authentic and comprehensive news and information which are disseminated via BERNAMA Wires; www.bernama.com; BERNAMA TV on Astro 502, unifi TV 631 and MYTV 121 channels and BERNAMA Radio on FM93.9 (Klang Valley), FM107.5 (Johor Bahru), FM107.9 (Kota Kinabalu) and FM100.9 (Kuching) frequencies.
Follow us on social media :
Facebook : @bernamaofficial, @bernamatv, @bernamaradio
Twitter : @bernama.com, @BernamaTV, @bernamaradio
Instagram : @bernamaofficial, @bernamatvofficial, @bernamaradioofficial
TikTok : @bernamaofficial
