In number of tourists, China takes first place in Russia

By Vestnik Kavkaza

Last year the number of Chinese tourists in Russia grew to 1.125 million people. According to the head of Rostourism, Oleg Safonov, Chinese citizens undertook more than 400 thousand tourist visits to Russia. As for the number of tourists who visit Russia, China takes first place, in front of Germany.

The deputy head of the Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots, Living Abroad and International Humanitarian Cooperation, Alexander Radkov, thinks that tourism is an integral part of humanitarian contacts. “Russia, being seriously impacted on inbound tourism, when Russia's image was badly damaged in the West, thanks to the efforts of the Western media, Chinese tourism in Russia turned out to be a safety airbag. And we can see an increase in visits of Chinese tourists to Russia. The ruble exchange rate over the past six months sank against the dollar and the euro rate, and of course, a trip to Russia became more popular, it attracts Chinese tourists, who make a positive impact on the tourism infrastructure in the Russian Federation.”

Speaking about humanitarian contacts, Radkov says that in Beijing, the Russian Centre of Science and Culture has been successfully operating for many years. This allows them to monitor the situation from the inside: “We are seeing a resurgence of interest of Chinese citizens in Russian culture, in Russian science, the Russian language. Today the Russian language is taught in 400 universities in China, 45,000 students are studying it, and the demand for the language is growing. Russian language courses are organized on the basis of our center. The foundation ‘Russian World’ has seven centers for teaching the Russian language and four linguistic rooms in China. Contests are held every year in the Russian language. During the Soviet era the Russian language was certainly popular, and nowadays, we can say, there is a renaissance of interest in the Russian language.”