Bollywood may become gateway to Russia for Indian tourists

"Shooting of a couple of Bollywood movies with mega stars in Russian locations could open the country for the Indian tourists willing to lavishly spend on foreign travels," India's Commerce Secretary G K Pillai said here earlier this week addressing a joint Indo-Russian business seminar organised by Moscow-based Indian Business Alliance and the Centre of Strategic Research, a Kremlin-linked think-tank.
Pillai said rich Indian tourists had opened Australia and New Zealand as attractive tourism destinations after filming of popular Bollywood movies these countries.
Last year over 45,000 Indians had visited Russia, of which only 4,000 were tourists, while among the 59 thousand Russian visitors to India there were 35 thousand tourists, mostly to Goa, although it is much bellow the potential of tourism in both countries, industry representatives said.
India and Russia view tourism as one of the promising areas of cooperation as part of the drive to boost their economic interaction and trade to the level of 10 billion dollars by 2020