BACOLOD City – Negros Occidental is attractive to Russians, according to Russian Ambassador to the Philippines Igor Khovaev.
Khovaev paid Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. a courtesy visit at the capitol yesterday. He was in the city to attend the Bacolod Chicken Inasal Festival.
The Russian envoy told Marañon over lunch that the local food is one of the reasons that Russians spend their vacations in the province.
Khovaev added that Russians are an “ideal market” because they stay longer, travel with family members, respect history, and spend a lot of money. These will help boost the local economy, he stressed.
Every year, more than 20 million Russians travel the world, especially tropical countries, Khovaev said.
In 2017, more than one million Russians went to Thailand while over 500,000 to Vietnam.
In the Philippines, however, there were only about 40,000, Khovaev added.
Out of the 1.7 million tourists who went to Negros Occidental last year, 5,303 were Russians.
Khovaev invited Marañon to the Tourism Fair and Exhibition in Russia so that the governor can “aggressively” promote Negros Occidental to the Russian market.
“It is not common for Russians to smile a lot but the Filipinos infected me with the ‘smile virus’ so I smile more here in the Philippines and when Russian people smile, they are very sincere,” said Khovaev./PN
