Moscow news
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07-Feb-2007
Moscow boosts tourism, hoping to attract five million people 2010
MOSCOW, February 7 (Itar-Tass) -- The development of foreign tourism to Moscow is going ahead on such a big scale that the five-million level set by the year 2010 will be overcome much sooner than scheduled, Head oft the Moscow Committee for Tourism Grigory Antyufeyev said at Itar-Tass on Wednesday.
The number of foreign tourists who visited Moscow over nine months in 2006 exceeded the number of foreign guests to the city in 2005 by 6.5 percent.
The volume of tourists to Moscow grows by 200,000- 500,000 on the average annually. If in 2005 there were around 3. 5 million guests visiting Moscow, the five-million target set for 2010 will be overcome much earlier than in 2010, Antyufeyev said.
Apart from traditional sightseeing in Moscow, Pancake Festivals annually held on Vasilyevsky downhill in Red Square, are becoming increasingly popular.
Foreign guests arrive in Moscow on these days on planned organized tours. "In perspective, we hope that the Moscow Pancake Festival will match the famous Brazilian carnival in popularity, " he said.
Numerous foreign TV camera crews broadcasting from the Pancake compound near the Kremlin Wall are proof of a growing interest in the Russian folk festival shown abroad, Antyufeyev said.
Moscow has proved the most popular city for tourists from Germany, the United States, Turkey, France, Great Britain, Italy, China, Israel, Japan and Spain. Nevertheless, such a vast geography is no limit to Moscow's popularity abroad, Antyufeyev declared.
The Moscow International Travel Fair (MITF) - Tourism 2006, attracted a record high number of participants since MITF events have been held.
More than a thousand representatives of travel business from 45 countries and 80 regions of Russia took part.
Such a high MITF turnout makes it possible to say that in the near future Moscow might become one of the world's most attractive cities, said Moscow city mayor Yuri Luzhkov. "Moscow is prepared for the role of a site through which foreign tourists will start exploring all Russia," Luzhkov said.
Itar Tass