The football World Cup this summer has triggered a doubling of air travel bookings to Russia over this time last year.
The latest figures come from ForwardKeys, which predicts future travel patterns by analysing 17 million booking transactions a day.
Russia is hosting the 32-team competition for the first time from June 14 to July 15.
The Forwardkeys’ findings show the biggest peak in arrivals comes as the tournament opens, and figures remain high for the rest of June – 118.3% ahead of last year – as the competition moves to its climax.
Mexico shows the greatest uplift in bookings – ahead by a factor of 19 on visitors going to Russia last year. Brazil (x15), Argentina (x10), Poland (x7) and the UK (x3), who have also qualified, all show dramatic increases in bookings, as of the end of February.
However, Italian bookings for Russia are lagging by as much as half on the previous year after the country failed to qualify for the tournament for the first time since 1958.
ForwardKeys chief executive and co-founder Olivier Jager said: “Once again the power of sport is going to give a massive boost to tourism.
“The Russians will obviously be looking forward to the international fans’ spending power. It’s just a shame that many Italians won’t be there to enjoy the drama.”
