Russian capital visited by 2 million foreign tourists in 2002

About two million foreign tourists visited the Russian capital last year. As a Rosbalt correspondent reports, this was announced yesterday by the press office of the Moscow administration. The city administration's funds rose in 2002 by USD 6.26 million due to income from tourism. The city hotels made about USD 633 million, adding at least another USD 33 million to the city budget in the form of taxation.

USD 9 million from the city budget has been allocated to the tourism industry in 2003 and USD 10.3 million will be allocated in 2004. It is expected that within 5-7 years about 5 million foreign tourists will visit the Russian capital every year.