MOSCOW, October 31. /TASS/. A second national office for tourism Visit Russia opens in Shanghai on November 10 amid growing numbers of Chinese tourists visiting Russia, reports the press service of the World without Borders travel association, which brings together more than 170 companies operating in the sphere of Russian-Chinese tourism.
A ceremony to unveil the office will be held within the framework of the biggest in Asia tourism exhibition, China International Travel Market.
According to the deputy head of Rosturizm Federal Agency for Tourism, Sergei Korneyev, "a sizable growth in the number of tourists arriving in Russia from China comes to a great extent due to a policy of information openness of our country and a successful advance of the Russian tourism product on the Asian market."
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"The opening of a new office in Shanghai, one of the biggest and developed metropolises of China, will not only help raise interest in our country, but will help diversity the flow of tourists, attract active middle-aged travelers interested in different regions of Russia," he said.
Korneyev said "the number of guests from China grew 10% in the first half of 2016 year-on-year, making up 458,000 people". "Chinese tourists spent in Russia about 1.7 billion dollars in the first half of the year, which is a sizable contribution to the national economy," he added. In 2015, Rosturizm launched a new marketing strategy for advancing Russia as a tourist destination, Visit Russia. National offices for tourism are already operating in Germany, Finland, Italy, Spain, Iran, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, China and countries of South-East Asia.