Russia's Federal Agency of Tourism is estimating that "there will be 30-40% more tourists visiting Russia during the 2018 World Cup, than there were during the Sochi Olympic games," according to Paul Nicholson of INSIDE WORLD FOOTBALL. During the whole period of the Sochi games, 2 million people "visited the city." One of the issues facing Russia "is accommodating the visitors." The tourism agency said that "it is developing measures to support regions where hotels and infrastructure are under construction for the World Cup." Currently only five out of the 11 hosting cities "are reckoned to have the infrastructure to receive and accommodate guests -- Moscow, St Petersburg, Tatarstan, Krasnodar, and Sverdlovsk." Local reports "are that half of the hotels are under construction" while two new hotels in the center of Nizhny Novgorod are near completion. The "other hotels are all in the development and planning stage." Figures from the Brazilian tourism board Embratur after the World Cup this summer showed the number of int'l visitors to the country "surpassed all expectations." Predictions "were of 600,000 visitors to the 12 host cities but actually more than a million visited." The economic effect of these World Cup visitors was "reckoned about" 30B reais ($11B). Whether Russia benefits in the same way "looks likely to depend on the political situation in the world." But the Russians "are planning for an influx" (INSIDE WORLD FOOTBALL, 12/10).
