MOSCOW: Foreigners travelling to Russia for the FIFA World Cup 2018 are likely to spend 100 billion Rubles ($1.6 billion) and more, the Russian Ministry of Economic Development has forecast according to a report in TASS, the country’s state news agency.
Maxim Oreshkin, the minister of economic development also opined that the anti-Russian sanctions imposed by the European Union in the wake of the Ukraine crisis, won’t have a negative impact on the World Cup and the national economy during the tournament.
“According to our estimates, foreigners will spend over 100 blnrubles during the World Cup in Russia,” Oreshkin was quoted as saying to TASS.
“There’s politics, there’s the economy, and then there’s the life of regular people. The demand for a global competitive sports event, such as the World Cup, is always high. Look at what prices the tickets are going for. We expect the matches to be sold out. And we can witness the same in the sphere of culture. During this political storm, tours by musicians, theater and ballet groups continue.”
However, he added that the World Cup wouldn’t affect the GDP of Russia as such.
“Thankfully, our country’s GDP is high – 100 trillion Rubles ($1.6 trillion). Hundreds of billions in investments are within the margin of a few tenths of a percent. On the other hand, for some cities and regions, the effect caused by a growing demand due to the tourists’ arrival can be measured by dozens of percents. It’s impossible to compare the scale of Moscow and, for example, Saransk,” he added.
Oreshkin said that the World Cup was not the reason for the modernization of infrastructure in host cities, which is why there hasn’t been a massive upgrade of it. He sees the tournament more as a platform to lay the groundwork of modernizing the cities in the future.
“I will repeat, with the construction of modern hotels, airports, roads, the population’s activity in regional centers will rise. It will be easier to do business in, say, Nizhny [Novgorod] or Rostov [-on-Don]. The cities will transform as well. Now many people laugh when they see how in some places, people mask the facades of old buildings with banners. However, the preparation for the World Cup did not suppose a total update of urban infrastructure. Our goal was to lay the groundwork for further modernization.”
The World Cup will be held across 12 stadiums and 11 cities – Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Kazan, Saransk, Kaliningrad, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and Samara .
