MOSCOW, July 30. /TASS/. Russia’s Black Sea resort city of Sochi has received more Russian tourists than the Turkish resorts since the beginning of the year, Executive Director of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) Maya Lomidze said on the air at the Vesti FM radio station.

"This season, Sochi is the most visited and most popular resort with Russian tourist. In recent years, almost nothing has changed, over the last 3-5 years, in general, after the Olympics, Sochi still holds the lead, and this year is no exception. Most Russians go on vacation to Sochi. It is more than even in Turkey," she said.

Earlier, governor of the Krasnodar region Veniamin Kondratyev said that since the beginning of the year more than 7 mln people had visited the regional resorts. He also noted that the tourist traffic in the region is higher than in 2018, when some cities of the Krasnodar region hosted matches of the World Cup.

According to preliminary estimates of tour operators, about 4.5 mln tourists from Russia will go on holiday to Turkey this summer. However, head of the Russian-Turkish intergovernmental commission, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak did not rule out that 6 mln tourists from Russia can visit Turkey in total, and this will be a record for the number of tourist trips to Turkey.

In general, Turkey and Russia account for about 80% of all tours sold for the summer, tour operators said. The share of tourists, who choose Russian destinations for summer holidays and travel as part of organized tour groups, account for only 20% of the total number of Russians traveling in the country.

Most tourists prefer to plan their vacation in Russia on their own, ATOR reported.

On the contrary, tourists going to Turkey prefer to buy package tours. Therefore, if we take the total number of tourists in general, Russia remains the leader leads for the summer, according to ATOR.