Interregional tourism: how to travel in self-isolation and where travellers will be under medical observation
Many regions keep restrictions when travelling in Russia — Realnoe Vremya’s review
Despite the restrictions of the self-isolation regime and a reduction in interregional transport traffic across the country, not to mention the cancellation of most international flights, Russians keep travelling. The holiday season is ahead, moreover, many expected “now the bans will be lifted” like in Vysotsky’s song, at least the ban on the two-week self-isolation. And trips in Russia, if not abroad, will become more accessible. But information can change daily and rapidly depending on the epidemiological situation, which is quite shaky. This is why when planning a trip, it is better to look for information. Realnoe Vremya found out how the republic welcomed guests from other regions and how other corners of the country would think about the arrival of Tatarstan residents.
No exception either for others or ours
After loosening the self-isolation regime in regions, people begin to lead a more active lifestyle and not only go out but leave regions. All information about people who arrive in the republic goes to offices of Russia’s consumer protection watchdog Rospotrebnadzor and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, offices of the ministry help to track Russians’ movement by railway. Moreover, the sanitary service controls all types of transport, head of the Anti-Coronavirus Headquarters of Tatarstan, Vice Premier Leyla Fazleyev explained to Realnoe Vremya. According to her, 2,679 people who arrived in the republic and people who are in contact with them are now under observation.
After one gets back home in Tatarstan from a business trip or comes here to visit the region, the person receives a statement of the chief sanitary doctor on two-week quarantine. Witnesses say that their address, passport data, phone number are written down at the station. A person who has arrived in the republic as well as people close to him can’t go outside either to the shop or pharmacy. However, passers-by stopped being examined in the streets of the republic when the passes were cancelled. A call informs a person who is in quarantine that his compulsory self-isolation ended if the person is healthy and wasn’t the hospital’s patient with the coronavirus.
The self-isolation regime in many regions stretched into late May and early June. If it is cancelled in the short run, people will rush to different parts of the country on business or holiday. We asked the head of the headquarters if regions wouldn’t like to risk and would prolong quarantine for people who arrive in the region when the situation stabilises.
“Judging by how the situation is developing across the country, there is no foundation to say that such measures for people arriving in the republic will last longer than the self-isolation regime itself,” says Leyla Fazleyeva.
More than half of Russians cancel trips
More than half of the citizens of the country or, more precisely 63% have anyway cancelled trips this year, say analysts of Tutu.ru travel service. 40% of them had business trips, 35% were going to visit their relatives, 16% took advantage of going to another region of Russia because of a low price of tickets in March and April. And 9% of the respondents simply didn’t return the tickets they had purchased.
Despite the existing restrictions, southern destinations became the most popular, experts note. Most Russians have moved from Moscow to Simferopol this May like in 2019, even the current rise in prices by 11% didn’t confuse them. The flow of tourists from the capital to Sochi has reduced a bit compared to last year but it is also in the second place. Flights to Mineral Waters have gone up from the 5th to the 3rd pace. Kaliningrad has become more popular this year. Those flying from the northern capital have preferred Crimea. The route Saint Petersburg — Simferopol has risen from the 16th place to the 6th, while the price for such a flight has fallen by 18% on average. Moreover, the price for the flight has notably decreased for those who depart from Petersburg, for instance, by 24% to Krasnodar, though the number of those who want to fly there is higher than last year. Magadan has brought it off from last year’s 43rd place to the 9th position. It turned out that there have been much fewer people who want to go to Rostov-on-Don and Yekaterinburg this spring. The flight between them this year became uninteresting for Russians and went down from the 3rd to the 25th place.
They wait and don’t
The number of flights for Russians has notably decreased now. 388 out of 4,964 flights inside the country and three flights out of 1,663 abroad have opened, Tutu.ru notes. There is almost no ban on travelling across Russia, if Tatarstan residents decide to go on a trip will be put in quarantine in many regions. Some airports immediately warn about this on their websites — the airport of Kazan is among them. The airport of this year’s popular Simferopol destination is not an exception.
“Citizens who don’t have registration at the place of residence or residence in the Republic of Crimea, who don’t have residential and non-residential facilities as property in the republic and those who have arrived in Crimea from another Russian region must be under medical observation during 14 days since the day of arrival. Employees of the Crimean Linear Control of Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs on transport will hand over notifications about being in the self-isolation regime at Simferopol international airport. We ask you to consider this information when planning flights to Crimea,” Simferopol informs.
Krasnodar also warns about two-week observation for guests. But information services of not all airports are so caring, many simply don’t have information about the restrictions mentioned in the regional news. Tutu.ru’s service Radar of Hope can help you. Its map time after time updates data on all Russian cities and regions with airports with the latest date of information update. With the help of this map, Realnoe Vremya found out that residents of the republic will likely be received by neighbours in Bashkortostan, which has self-isolation for people coming from Moscow and regions with an unfavourable epidemiological situation in force — according to the latest data, it is quite stable in Tatarstan. Saratov Oblast won’t restrict Tatarstan residents where observation is also ready for citizens of Moscow and its oblast. Neither is there quarantine for residents of the republic in Voronezh, Sverdlovsk, Kaluga and Bryansk Oblasts and in Saint Petersburg. At the airport of Chelyabinsk, your temperature will be taken if you arrive by plane, nothing is said about quarantine, but the entrance is close for cars arriving from other regions, except for transit vehicles and lorries.
Other neighbours will welcome Tatarstan residents with two-week self-isolation: Ulyanovsk, Mari El, Mordovia, Perm Krai. Information in Udmurtia varies in different sources. Radar of Hope puts everybody who arrives in the region in quarantine, while the airport of Izhevsk does only Muscovites, citizens of Petersburg and residents of Moscow Oblast. One shouldn’t rush to Yaroslavl, Ivanovo, Volgograd, Rostov, Novosibirsk, Kaliningrad Oblasts, Krasnodar and Krasnoyarsk Krais, Stavropol and Primorye. While in Moscow, as it is known, passes are necessary to move in the city.
If you arrived by car in the region where you became persona non-grata and decide to leave it in the same way, you won’t be impeded. But Tatarstan residents who are coming back shouldn’t forget that the republic still has the self-isolation regime for those who arrive in the region including people on business trips.