Russia aims for more tourists from China - official

ST. PETERSBURG, December 15. /TASS/. Russia will increase its efforts next year to attract Chinese tourists, a deputy head of federal tourism agency Rostourism said on Tuesday. China is "one of the most rapidly developing tourist markets" and tourist flow from there to Russia is expected to grow by 50 percent or even 100 percent next year, Sergei Korneyev said. "The world is now fighting for Chinese tourists and this trend will continue," he added. Statistics say that most foreign visitors come to Russia from China. In the first nine months of 2015, over 1.1 million Chinese nationals visited Russia, and 583,000 of these were tourists. The flow from China to Russia has grown more than threefold over the past five years. Korneyev said Rostourism was seeking an easier visa regime for organised tourist groups from China. "We already have some preliminary agreements with the Foreign Ministry," he said. Read more