Notes that follow the text. The growing number of tourists coming to Russia so far has not been large enough to counterbalance the number of locals travelling abroad.

The growing number of tourists coming to Russia so far has not been large enough to counterbalance the number of locals travelling abroad.

The number of Russian citizens with tourist visas last year (1999) declined 16% to 2.8 million and was about 50% lower than the peak of 4.16 million in 1997, but this does not take into account the large number of tourists travelling to countries that did not require entry visas.

At present, Russia is a net importer of tourism and other services. Imports of services exceeded exports of services by 1.7 billion

dollars between January and September of last year. The share of services in gross domestic product here is only a margin over 50%, while in the developed world it often stands over 70%.

Russia is by no means a tourist Mecca - its ongoing problems relating to security, corruption and.lack of customer service are well known - so most people who can afford credit cards and luxury cars flee the country to enjoy the better service standards offered by foreign hotels, be it-in neighboring Finland or the distant Caribbean. As a result there are eight local citizens travelling abroad for each foreign tourist coming in and one local going to Sochi or some other domestic destination. So tourism in Russia became a gateway for capital flight.

International experience shows that tourism remains a hostage to general economic trends and does not depend on the generosity of government bodies.

Asia's economic recovery last year paved the way for growth in the global tourist industry. China enjoyed a rise of 7.9% in the number of incoming tourists last year, overtaking the United Kingdom, which fell from fifth to sixth place in WTO's growth statistics. Domestic travelling in China alone brought in taxes worth 28 billion dollars, which is more than the total size of Russia's federal budget, according to Tourinfo magazine.

The top spot last year (2000) in terms of tourist numbers was taken by France with 71.4 million arrivals, while the United States topped the annual tourism earnings rankings, with some 70 billion dollars in revenues.

Statistics from the Physical Culture, Tourism and Sport Ministry show that Russia had revenues of 2 billion dollars from tourism last year, an eighth of the 16 billion dollars that Soviet Union earned from tourism when 50 million travellers came every year, according to the Academy of Tourism in Moscow.

The Moscow Times, February 20, 2001

Vocabulary notes on the text

So far

Large enough

To counterbalance

Locals

To decline to