Low-income families in Russia may once again be eligible for tourist cashback, according to a proposal made by the State Duma.
Russia Considering Reintroduction of Targeted Tourist Cashback Program
A proposal has been made to reintroduce a tourist cashback program in Russia, aimed at boosting the tourism industry and making domestic travel more accessible for certain families.
Sangaji Tarbaev, a prominent figure, has written a letter to Maxim Reshetnikov, the Minister of Economic Development of Russia, suggesting the reintroduction of the cashback program in a targeted format. According to Tarbaev, the specific categories of families being considered for this cashback are large families, low-income families, and families with children with disabilities.
The tourist cashback program, initially launched in August 2020 as an anti-crisis measure during the pandemic, allowed citizens to partially compensate their expenses on travel within Russia. Tarbaev believes that travel within the country is practically inaccessible for many of these families due to financial constraints, and the reintroduced tourist cashback program would aim to alleviate this issue.
The reintroduction of the program, as proposed by Tarbaev, would help these families explore Russia's cultural and natural heritage, which has been inaccessible due to financial constraints. However, there is no specific evidence from recent 2025 sources that Russia is currently considering reintroducing this targeted tourist cashback program.
In 2025, Russian tourism platforms such as Yandex.Travel, Ostrovok.ru, and Aviasales are actively using cashback, promo codes, affiliate programs, and other incentives to stimulate travel demand generally. These appear to be broad promotions integrated into booking systems rather than specifically targeted cashback programs for certain family groups.
There is a related mention of a substantial cashback program for pensioners and beneficiaries, but this relates to social benefits rather than tourism incentives.
Despite the lack of official plans for reintroducing a family-targeted tourist cashback scheme, Tarbaev believes that reintroducing the program could facilitate access to domestic tourism for socially vulnerable groups and would be a continuation of the positive experience of the initial program that operated until 2022.
The reintroduction of a targeted tourist cashback program, as proposed by Sangaji Tarbaev, would not only aid socially vulnerable families in exploring Russia's cultural and natural heritage, but could potentially stimulate the domestic travel sector and offer a networking opportunity for related finance, lifestyle, and business sectors such as travel platforms and service providers. Financial support for travel could potentially have a positive impact on the overall well-being and lifestyle of the families involved.
