A new report - the Russian International Travel Monitor (RITM) - produced by online hotel bookings company hotels.com, claims that while Russia is now the world's second-fastest growing outbound travel market in terms of spend, the UK is failing to capitalise on it.

As evidence it shows that while Spain, Italy and France have all expanded their share of the outbound Russian market since 2006, that of the UK has shrunk and the country now attracts less than one per cent of all outbound Russian travellers.

Using bookings made through its website in the first half of 2013 as a yardstick, European destinations are the most popular for Russians, with the top five being Paris, Rome, Madrid, Barcelona and Prague. London comes in at 9th place.

The report believes that part of this could be due to the limited access to the UK available to Russian tourists, although easyJet has introduced daily flights between Moscow and London this year, in addition to the first direct flights between Moscow and Manchester.

It also points out that a separate visa is required to enter the UK, while Russian tourists can visit all the countries in the Schengen Area - including Spain, Italy and France - with a single visa.