NOVOSIBIRSK, November 8. /TASS/. The flow of Chinese tourists to West Siberia’s Novosibirsk Region has grown fourfold in the past three years due to the popularity of the so-called "Red Route", a grand tour of the former Soviet Union’s landmarks, the regional economic development ministry said on Wednesday.
"The number of Chinese tourists who visited the region in the first nine months of 2017 was 23, 433 people, in 2016 - 19,801 people and 5,464 people in 2015," the ministry said.
"The ideological aspect of tours that include sites linked with our Communist past is very important for Chinese guests. Therefore, ‘red tourism’ is most popular among them. In 2016, the Novosibirsk region was included in the nationwide project ‘Red Route’ featuring cultural and historical sites linked to the Soviet epoch," the ministry said.
The "Red Route" in the Novosibirsk Region includes the Lenin House built in 1926 and resembling the Lenin Mausoleum in Moscow, the public garden named after 1917 revolution heroes, the regional museum, the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater, the USSR Museum, the Red Torch Theater and the Red Barracks architectural complex.
According to the ministry, Novosibirsk is Russia’s fifth most popular region among Chinese tourists after Moscow, the Primorye Territory, St. Petersburg and Amur region.