100,000 Chinese tourists are descending on Russia to watch the Fifa World Cup
Soccer fans from China snapped up 40,000 tickets to the Fifa World Cup in Russia, even though the national team missed out on a place
According to figures from the tournament’s official website, Chinese devotees of the beautiful game have so far bought over 40,000 match tickets – about 8,000 more than English fans – putting them eighth on the list of international buyers.
When China made its one and only appearance at the World Cup – in 2002 in South Korea and Japan – between 40,000 and 50,000 fans are estimated to have travelled with the team, while back home the tournament garnered 7 billion television views, according to state media reports.
As many as 100,000 Chinese tourists are expected to travel to Russia during the festival of football, which runs from June 14 to July 14, according to China’s largest online travel agent Ctrip.
Not surprisingly, flight bookings between China and Russia are up by about 400 per cent from the same period of last year, while hotel bookings for Moscow are up 10-fold, it said.