09:37, 13 января 2018, Bishkek - 24.kg news agency
The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia agreed on a list of countries where its employees can have a rest during holidays. Lenta.ru reported.
As noted, in 2018, the Ministry of Internal Affairs employees can spend holidays in 13 countries: Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Cuba, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Experts of the tourist industry stress that only Cuba, Abkhazia, China and Vietnam are beach destinations. «Azerbaijan, despite the presence of the sea coast, is mainly a sightseeing destination,» they noted.
Uzbekistan for Russia is an interesting excursion destination, however, trips there are limited by seasonality and high price of flight. Armenia is a popular sightseeing destination for the Russians, and the Russian citizens traditionally go to Belarus for recreation in health resorts.
Representatives of the tourism business stressed that tours to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are poorly represented in the Russian market.
South Ossetia and Tajikistan are almost not represented.
Experts added that «presence of Turkmenistan in the list» is surprising, because Russia has a visa regime with this country, and it is difficult to get a visa there for the Russians. Because of this, there is no organized tourism to Turkmenistan from the Russian Federation.