NEW DELHI, 29 January 2025: The Moscow City Tourism Committee is ramping up efforts to deepen collaboration with India’s outbound tourism market, focusing on business events or the MICE sector.
Moscow is reinforcing its status as a premier leisure and business tourism destination, with India emerging as a key strategic partner.
After 2020, India was among the leading non-CIS countries that sent tourists to Moscow, a trend that continued robustly throughout 2024. In the first half of 2024, the Russian capital welcomed 28,500 visitors from India, a remarkable 1.5-fold increase compared to the same period in 2023. This growth was driven primarily by the introduction of the eVisa system in August 2023, which made travel to Russia for Indian passport holders more accessible and boosted MICE traffic.
Evgeny Kozlov, First Deputy Head of the Office of the Mayor and the Government of Moscow, Chairman of the Moscow City Tourism Committee, said: “While most tourists visit Moscow for cultural, educational, and entertainment purposes, the city has also been focusing on expanding business tourism, which is now a significant contributor to the local economy.
“By 2030, the number of foreign tourists is expected to reach 6 million, mainly due to travellers from the CIS countries, the Asia-Pacific region, India and the Middle East.”
Attending OTM travel show
Moscow Tourism is attending the OTM International Tourism Exhibition in Mumbai from 30 January to 1 February 2025.
Ahead of the exhibition, on 28 January a Moscow Business Mission comprising prominent Moscow tourism representatives and approximately 80 Indian tour operators and industry stakeholders convened in Mumbai, followed by a reception on 29 January, hosted by the Moscow City Tourism Committee, welcomed Indian partners, High ranking officials in attended, including Ivan Fetisov, Consul General of the Russian Federation in Mumbai, Victor Gorelykh, the Director of the Russian House in Mumbai, and Evgeny Kozlov, Chairman of the Moscow City Tourism Committee.
