MOSCOW, 10 July 2025. The VCIOM Analytical Center presents the findings of a monitoring study on hospitality.

Russia has long been a hospitable country.  The proverb “What's in the oven straight onto the table!” aptly reflects how welcoming and generous the Russian people are. The acceleration of the pace of life, the transformation of leisure activities and the virtualization of communication have definitely affected the hospitality practices, however heartfelt meetings in a homelike setting are still common among Russians.

According to the findings, Russians find both roles attractive: to host and to be invited over. Over the recent six months seven in ten respondents have done both things. At the same time, as in 2020 Russians still pay visits to friends more often. However, family also remains to be important: many respondents say they often visit parents. Communicating with colleagues is less important. The same thing can be applied to neighbors: today most respondents just greet them and have small talk. Good neighborliness is still valued in the Caucasus region: compared to Russians in general the residents of the Caucasus more willingly visit neighbors and have guests over, which proves the concept of the Caucasian hospitality.

With age and narrowing social circles the so-called ‘guest balance’ (rotation of roles) gets broken: older generations (Stagnation and Thaw) are likely to act as a receiving party, paying visits primarily to their children; on the contrary, millennials more often visit parents. Zoomers, with their rich “guest” experience, stand out. They definitely have places to pay visits to, and they actively benefit from that to visit friends, parents and other family members.

All-Russian VCIOM-Sputnik telephone survey was conducted July 6, 2025. A total of 1,600 respondents aged 18 and older took part in the survey. Survey method: telephone interview, stratified random sample based on a complete list of mobile phone numbers in use in Russia. The data were weighted for socio-demographic characteristics. The margin of error at a 95% confidence level does not exceed 2.5%. In addition to sampling error, minor changes to the wording of questions and different circumstances arising during the fieldwork can introduce bias into the survey.

Key effectiveness indicators, survey of July 6, 2025: cooperation rate (CR)* = 0.8075; minimum response rate (MRR)** = 0.0171; response rate (RR)*** = 0.0905. Calculations are based on corporate standard:

* CR: the number of complete interviews divided by the sum of: а) complete interviews and b) non-interviews with eligible respondents.

** MRR: the number of complete interviews divided by the sum of: а) complete interviews, b) interrupted interviews after successful screening and c) all the respondents where it is unknown whether they meet the selected criteria or not.

** RR is calculated in the same way as MRR, with the only difference that the number of respondents with unknown eligibility decreases proportional to the percentage of eligible cases in the total number of respondents with identified eligibility or non-eligibility.

* Calculations based on the answers to the following questions: “Have you visited friends /relatives in the last recent six months, or not?” and “Has anyone visited your place, have you had anyone over in the last six months”

Author: Lyudmila Bogomazova