Beijing, June 22 (IANS) More than half of the Chinese fans who have bought tickets for the 2018 World Cup are women, and the visitors are expected to spend millions of dollars in Russia, according to a report released on Friday.
Chinese tour operator Ctrip estimates around 100,000 Chinese fans will travel to Russia for the World Cup, ranking third amongst all countries, according to the Global Times newspaper, reports Efe.
The visitors will likely spend at least 3 billion yuan ($461 million) based on tickets, consumer services and inter-city transportation in Russia.
About 57 percent of the Chinese visitors are women and, according to the travel agency, many of them admitted that the main reason for their trip to Russia is to see the players up close.
According to the report, Ctrip’s outbound tourism manager Xiao Yinyuan said there are about 20 flights to Russia from China every day and the average occupancy rate of flights to Russia’s popular cities is over 90 percent.