You don't need beach vacations, citizens told

Russia's tourism chief got himself into hot water on Monday by claiming there is no need for Russians to go abroad on beach vacations, after Moscow severed air ties with Egypt and warned against travel to Turkey.

In an interview with newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta, the head of Russia's tourism agency Oleg Safonov said that "the need for beaches and the sea is very much a stereotype of recent years, which we already accept as our own opinion".

"Our forefathers, even the wealthy, did not go en masse to foreign seas," he said.