Russia's closer ties with the Gulf deliver an Arabic-speaking tourism boom
The Straits Times
MOSCOW, Feb 27 - In sub-zero temperatures outside Moscow, teams of husky dogs pull tourists from Oman and the United Arab Emirates across picturesque snow-covered fields in sleds, delighting their passengers who have never experienced a Russian winter before. Read more at straitstimes.com.
MOSCOW, Feb 27 - In sub-zero temperatures outside Moscow, teams of husky dogs pull tourists from Oman and the United Arab Emirates across picturesque snow-covered fields in sleds, delighting their passengers who have never experienced a Russian winter before.
Nearby, a couple from Qatar feed a small herd of deer and other tourists from the Middle East drive a hovercraft at high speed across a snowy lake.
"It was like drifting in the desert but here on ice," said Badreya Almarooqi, a tourist from the UAE at the Nazarievo Husky Park - 45 km (30 miles) west of central Moscow - where signs are written in Arabic as well as Russian.
North of the city, another group of Gulf tourists crowd into a hot air balloon to drift over a vast snowy landscape.
"(It was) one of the best activities in my life!” said Ayoub Aziz, a tourist from Saudi Arabia drawn to the experience in the Dmitrov district 65 km (40 miles) from the city centre, one of many such activity destinations dotted around the capital.
Four years into Russia's war in Ukraine, Moscow's pivot away from the West and its quest to draw nearer to other parts of the world has produced an Arabic-speaking tourism boom.
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