What are the most promising travel routes for Chinese tourists in Russia in 2018?

According to Russian reports on January 5, as of the first nine months of 2017, the number of Chinese visa-free tourists to Russia reached 840,000, an increase of 24%. When interviewed, tourism experts pointed out several promising tourism directions that will become popular directions for Chinese tourists in 2018, including event tourism related to the 2018 World Cup, Arctic tours, industrial and aerospace tourism, etc.

2018 World Cup City Tour

According to Ashery Smolyar, organizer of the "Visit Russia" road show, popular destinations for Chinese tourists next year will include 2018 Football World Cup city tour held from June 14th to July 14th: Moscow, Kaliningrad, St. Petersburg, Volgograd, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Sochi, Yekaterinburg , Saransk et al. She added that China is among the top five countries with the highest number of residents buying match tickets.

According to Smolyar, within the framework of a roadshow in Shanghai in November 2017, the Visit Russia office presented the tourism resources of all cities hosting the 2018 World Cup. She said: "The cities that will host the World Cup have provided various routes for fans, prepared event calendars, and developed inter-regional routes."

It is said that the 2018 World Cup will attract a new wave of Chinese The peak season for individual tourists and group tourists will be moved to August.

Arctic Journey

On November 6, astrophotographer Juan Carlos Casado traveled to Greenland, Iceland and Finland to photograph the beautiful Northern Lights.

In addition to the traditional routes associated with visits to Moscow and St. Petersburg, Arctic tourism has become increasingly popular in Russia in recent years.

Smolyar said: “Many Chinese residents hope to see the Northern Lights in Murmansk Oblast and ride on reindeer sleighs and snowmobiles.” According to data from the Murmansk Oblast government, trips to the state The number of Chinese tourists tripled last year.

The Krasnoyarsk Territory has also developed Arctic tours for Chinese tourists to observe the Northern Lights. Travel plans include visiting the Mammoth Museum, taking a helicopter flight and learning about the culture of northern minorities.

According to data from the Russian Federal Tourism Administration, Chinese tourists are the most active visitors to the Russian Arctic. In the past 20 years, the passenger flow from China has increased tenfold, especially the increasing interest in sailing to the Arctic Ocean islands and archipelago by icebreaker. Although ice-breaking water trips are expensive, this direction is very popular.

According to Roman Score, deputy director of the Federal Tourism Agency, industrial tourism in Russia that includes visits to Russia’s large industrial centers is becoming increasingly popular. "Even though they were closed, we quietly opened them up to show the unclassified parts of those productions. This generated great interest for people, including Chinese tourists," Scorey said.

Russian-Amur Oblast focuses on the development of aerospace tourism, which is one of the new directions with potential for Chinese tourists. The governor of the state, Alexander Kozlov, said in an interview: "We have begun to arrange organized group tours to the Vostochny Cosmodrome. The first official tourists visited the second launch, and people can watch the rocket launch from a very close distance ."

In addition, the Russian company "CosmoCours" will open flight ticket bookings for space tourism on suborbital spacecraft in 2018. The trip, which could cost up to $250,000, would last 15 minutes, five of which would be weightless. Visitors will be sent into space in groups of up to six people.