China travellers drive visitation in Primorye region

Saturday 2nd of January 2016

More than 30,000 people have visited the Primorye gaming zone since its official opening on 8 October 2015, the local tourism department head Konstantin Shestakov was quoted by state-owned RIA Novosti news agency as saying during his online news conference.

He also said that it was too early to talk about any significant increase in inbound tourism to the region after its launch, noting at the same time that all rooms in the hotel situated in the zone are booked until the end of February 2016.

He also noted an overall growth of tourist inflow in 2015 by 18.5 percent, with most of tourists now spending up to three days in the region. Out of 364,802 foreign tourists some 227,950 came from China.

Meanwhile, three months after its official launch the gaming zone paid about 110 million roubles of taxes and payments to extra-budgetary funds, including the tax on gaming business to the Primorye territory budget worth 37.5 million roubles.

Elsewhere, the second stage of the Shambala casino and a five-star hotel in Azov-City situated in Krasnodar Territory pre-opened on 25 December 2015. Initially, the official ceremony was set for 4 December but was later postponed, and is now expected to be held at the beginning of 2016.

The company - JSC Shambala, which owns two casinos there - Shambala and Nirvana, - expects the official opening to boost the number of visitors and tourists up to 20,000 people per month. If the zone is closed, then both its investors - Shambala and Royal Time Group - will demand 14-billion roubles in compensation from the government.

Bricks & Mortar Tourism Primorye Azov City Nirvana Shambala