MOSCOW: In sub-zero temperatures outside Moscow, teams of husky dogs pull tourists from Oman and the United Arab Emirates across picturesque snow-covered fields in sleds, delighting their passengers who have never experienced a Russian winter before.
Nearby, a couple from Qatar feed a small herd of deer and other tourists from the Middle East drive a hovercraft at high speed across a snowy lake.
"It was like drifting in the desert but here on ice", said Badreya al Marooqi, a tourist from the UAE at the Nazarievo Husky Park — 45 km (30 miles) west of central Moscow — where signs are written in Arabic as well as Russian.
North of the city, another group of Gulf tourists crowd into a hot air balloon to drift over a vast snowy landscape.
"(It was) one of the best activities in my life!” said Ayoub Aziz, a tourist from Saudi Arabia drawn to the experience in the Dmitrov district 65 km from the city centre, one of many such activity destinations dotted around the capital.
Four years into Russia's war in Ukraine, Moscow's pivot away from the West and its quest to draw nearer to other parts of the world has produced an Arabic-speaking tourism boom.
With more than 800,000 visits last year, tourists from China, long a close Russian partner, lead official figures by a long way. But Saudi Arabia secured the number two slot for the first time last year with nearly 75,000 tourists, a year-on-year increase of nearly 36 per cent, while more than 59,000 tourists came from the UAE, putting it in sixth place.
"Virtually all Arab countries have at least doubled their numbers, said Alexander Musikhin, general director of the Intourist tour operator.
Visitors from the Gulf stay in high-end hotels in the centre of the capital and are a common sight in upmarket Russia-themed restaurants and well-known shopping streets or malls.
They often spend at least 200,000-300,000 roubles ($6,523) on extra services, tour operators say and would spend more if the rules did not limit them to bringing in $10,000 in cash without a declaration. Western sanctions mean Visa and Mastercard do not work in Russia, "so it has to be in cash", UAE tourist Rashan Godani said.
Despite its war with Ukraine, Russia welcomed a total of 1.64 million tourists in 2025 according to the country's association of tour operators, 4.5% up on 2024, but sharply down on 2018, the year Russia held the World Cup when 4.2 million foreign tourists visited.
By contrast, 2.45 million Russians visited the UAE alone last year, up by nearly a quarter year-on-year and some Russian businessmen have opened up offices in Dubai. — Reuters
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