The number of foreign tourists visiting Moscow has risen dramatically, the city's Committee for Tourism announced at a press-conference on May 10.
Figures for the first quarter of this year show that tourism has increased by 20 percent, revealed committee chairman, Grigory Antifeev. This is compared to a 7 percent increase over the whole of last year. Antifeev explained that the growing influx was due to widespread official efforts to improve Russia's image as a tourist destination abroad. As well as increased investment going into foreign newspapers and particularly tourist magazines, Russian cultural events are becoming more popular abroad.
One of these events is London's Russian Winter Festival, a unique celebration of Russian culture, music and dance. The 3rd Annual Festival, which took place on January 13, 2007 in Trafalgar Square, was opened by Mayor of London Ken Livingstone. Popular performers such as Dima Bilan, Russia's Eurovision Song Contest winner, and Pelageya, famed for her modulating voice, performed for crowds under a flurry of fake snow.
The festival's mastermind Sergei Kolushev, said that the Annual Festival has already become a popular London tradition, attended by both locals and Russians.Antifeev stated that this festival was an important way of attracting winter tourism to Russia.
Major upcoming tourism projects in Moscow over the next couple of years include the controversial Tsaritsyno project, which should see the ruined estate turned into a tourist attraction. A few sections of the pedestrian "Golden Ring" around Moscow, which is still being planned, are set to open at the end of 2008. The historical "Vorontsovo" estate, a popular tourist destination, is also currently under reconstruction.
Antifeev also spoke of a shortage of 5-star hotels within the capital, despite continual complaints in the media that more budget hotels are needed. "No matter how many 5-star hotels exist, they are always bursting at the seams."
The committee's chairman said that no less than 20 hotels would be built in the course of this year.
By Nathalie Cooper
