How Russia’s ‘red tourism’ is luring wealthy Chinese visitors bored with Paris and Milan

Moscow didn’t make a great first impression on experienced Chinese tourist Maggie Xu and the two friends she was travelling with. There was confusion at the airport terminal, difficulty finding their driver, and then crippling traffic jams en route to their hotel, the city’s Ritz-Carlton.

Once they had settled in, though, the trio found themselves charmed by the sparkling lights lining the pavements of Tverskaya Street – Moscow’s Champs-Elysees. “On that cold winter night, the city had the joyful atmosphere of an amusement park,” Xu says.

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Xu, model Yuki Dong and education agency owner Jenny Lu had decided to travel to Russia this winter to celebrate Xu’s birthday. They are among a growing number of affluent, big-spending Chinese travellers looking for an alternative to the well-trodden paths of Paris, New York, London and Milan, instead heading to cities with less glamorous reputations such as Moscow and St Petersburg.

Both of these Russian destinations have acquired a glossy new allure, due at least in part to the “China Friendly” project launched by the government and industry in 2014. The project aims to accommodate more Chinese tourists through improved services, hotels, restaurants, tourist activities and – of course – shopping.

The year following the project’s launch, Chinese tourists spent between US$800 million and US$1 billion in Moscow, according to the city’s tourism authorities. In 2016, about one million Chinese tourists visited Russia, reportedly spending in the region of US$2 billion. At the beginning of this year, the Russian government introduced tax-free shopping for tourists in a number of notable stores, hoping to attract even greater numbers.