YEREVAN, January 21. /ARKA/. During the New Year holidays (from January 1 to January 10, 2019) Russian tourists used their Visa banking cards to spend 20 billion rubles (about $300 million), RBC reported, citing Visa data.

It said Russians’ spending abroad during this time span increased by 5.2%, if calculated in rubles and decreased by almost 10% if calculated in US dollars, as opposed to the same period last year (19 billion rubles, about $330 million). The differences are explained by the growth of the greenback against the ruble in 2018 by more than 20%.

For the second year in a row, there has been a decrease in the average bill. In 2019, it fell to 5,542 rubles, having decreased by 3.4%, and by 13% from 2017 when the average bill was 6,360 rubles.

The top 10 countries in terms of Russians’ spending via Visa cards are the UAE ($22 million), Thailand ($21 million), USA ($ 7 million), France ($16 million), Germany ($14 million), Spain ($14 million), Belarus ($13 million), Austria ($12 million) and Switzerland ($10 million).

In four countries, Russians spent more money during the New Year's holidays than all other foreigners who hold Visa cards (excluding local residents). These are Belarus ($13 million, or 72% of the spending by all foreigners), Armenia ($2.8 million, or 66%), Tajikistan ($525 thousand, or 53%) and Uzbekistan ($1.4 million , or 50%). -0-