Russia and luxury tourism from Saudi Arabia, why the rich people of the Gulf choose the cold of Moscow and Sochi (and not Europe)

The war in Ukraine has not deterred visitors from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) from traveling to Russia. Indeed, since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, arrivals from the region have increased. An anomalous phenomenon which, however, has underlying reasons.

Typically the focus has been on Kremlin-affiliated oligarchs who have bought luxury villas in Dubai and settled there full time, and on middle-class Russians, now closed off from the West, who holiday in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain.

But what has gone largely unnoticed is the flow of travelers in the opposite direction. Gulf Cooperation Council tourists are heading to the most sanctioned country in the world, with Saudi citizens at the forefront of this unprecedented influx. Thanks to an eight-fold increase in attendance over the past five years, Saudi tourists now make up the third largest group of foreign guests in Russia, after the Chinese and Turks respectively. Meanwhile, the 90-day visa-free mutual agreement reached earlier this month, combined with the launch of direct flights in August, could allow Moscow to host more than 200,000 Saudi visitors next year.

The prospects

The extension of visa-free stay is expected to make Russia an attractive option for wealthy Saudis looking for a long-term summer residence. But many Gulf visitors are also attracted to Russia in winter, also because heavy snow and sub-zero temperatures are new to travelers accustomed to the arid climate of the Arabian Peninsula. Popular activities include ice skating in Moscow’s Red Square, skiing in the Black Sea resort town of Sochi and even husky and reindeer sleigh rides in Siberia. Security concerns related to the ongoing war in Ukraine have not proven to be a significant deterrent. The systematic closure of major Russian airports and the wider implications of near-daily Ukrainian drone attacks appear to have had little impact on travelers arriving from the kingdom, for whom word of mouth carries significant weight. Likewise, the financial restrictions caused by Russia’s exclusion from the SWIFT payment system are dismissed as a minor inconvenience.

Philosophy

If nothing else, some visitors identify with the Russian government’s portrayal of the war as a fight “for the greater good,” to defend the nation from an invented external enemy. Just as Vladimir Putin used the threat of NATO’s eastward expansion and accusations of neo-Nazism in Ukraine as justification for a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Saudi Crown Prince and de facto ruler Mohammed Bin Salman has waged a decade-long military intervention and starvation siege in Yemen alongside the United Arab Emirates under the guise of countering Iranian influence in the Arab world’s poorest state. The nationalist fervor fomented by Putin by creating the illusion that Russia’s existence was in danger undoubtedly resonates with the Saudi masses who were forced to believe a similar narrative during that conflict. At the same time, tank excursions and bazooka shooting sessions contribute to the thrill of visiting a country at war, starting from a banal Middle Eastern theocracy where the average age is just 29.

The strategy

The Kremlin, for its part, has spared no effort to indulge whims and fantasies. religious or otherwise, of this profitable public. From adopting federal standards for halal food to establishing dedicated prayer places at five-star luxury hotels to experimenting with sharia-compliant banking systems and publishing Arabic maps of the Moscow Metro, Russian authorities are making a concerted effort to meet the demands of Gulf tourists. Attracting tourists from the Gulf is seen as an economic necessity for Russia, whose tourism industry collapsed after the large-scale invasion due to international isolation, economic sanctions and visa restrictions. Russian state broadcaster RT has increasingly promoted Russia to Arabic-speaking audiences as a family-friendly alternative to Europe, portraying Western countries as morally lax. For Moscow, on the other hand, Saudi Arabia is a key partner for Putin’s “multipolar” world order. Increased tourism and mobility are presented as part of a broader effort by the world’s two largest crude oil exporters to challenge Western dominance and reshape the global balance of power.