How many foreign fans are going to the World Cup in Russia?

In the winter and spring of 2018, 1.5 million foreign fans were “officially” waiting in Russia, in January this forecast was announced in the State Duma.

 

The head of Rostourism, Oleg Safonov, said: We assume that about one and a half million people will come only within the framework of the World Cup. Maybe the number of tourists, guests and fans will be more - tickets are now being sold.

 

In mid-April, the official dealer of hotel rooms for guests of the Championship, MATCH Accommodation, held the last “free” release of hotel rooms before the World Cup, and showed that preliminary estimates of the flow of fans put forward before the championship were not justified.

 

Closer to the 2018 World Cup, the estimates of the volume of the flow of foreign fans were adjusted by the organizers of the World Cup themselves.

 

The authors of the document “Investigation of the impact of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia on the economic, social and environmental sphere”, presented by the Russia 2018 Organizing Committee on April 25, are going to accept “up to 570,000” foreign fans, based on booking data in February 2018.

 

The head of the organizing committee “Russia 2018” Mr. Sorokin began to talk about “about 500 thousand” foreigners at the 2018 world Cup.

 

According to analysts, in publications in the press, the authors confuse the concepts of “tickets purchased” and “number of tourists”.

 

The most accurate indicator of the number of foreign tourists at the 2018 World Cup is the number of FAN IDs issued by foreigners. Without this identification document, it is impossible to use some free services and visa-free crossing of the border with Russia, and to attend the competition itself. Even if you have a ticket for the match, without a FAN ID, a fan who came to Russia will simply not get to this match.

 

As of May 11, 717 thousand FAN IDs were issued, of which half - 358.5 thousand (obviously, this figure is not accurate and obtained by simply dividing the number 717 thousand by 2) fell on Russians. That is, foreigners, even taking into account the possible error, issued the same number - about 360 thousand - fan passports.

 

Given the fact that, according to the organizing committee of Russia 2018, at the end of April, more than 80% of tickets for all matches of the Championship have already been sold, and on May 11, the official website of FIFA did not list a single match for which ticket applications would be available, we can assume that the figure of 360 thousand foreign FAN ID is if not final, then very close to the final. It also characterizes the maximum number of football fans from foreign countries who will come to the World Cup in Russia.

 

Tour operators inbound tourism agree with this assessment. We can assume that the number of foreign guests coming to Russia for the World Cup is equal to the number of FAN IDs issued, even taking into account the family members of the fans. Those who travel with families, issue passports for fans and all family members or companions: it is unlikely that there will be any common situation when the head of the family will go to the match, leaving the family or companion in the hotel and depriving them of the possibility of visa-free entry to Russia and free travel within the country, emphasizes Alexander Maklyarovsky, head of the inbound tourism department of the tour operator KMP Group.

 

By the way, the fact that FAN IDs are issued for family members of a fan is confirmed by the fact that 25% of all FAN IDs are for women.

 

According to the expert, for the remaining month before the start of the Championship, the figure of 360,000 foreign fans may grow by several percent, but it will not radically increase. “It is realistic to talk about the figure of about 400,000 foreign fans and their families, and most likely the final number will be below the 400,000 threshold,” Maklyarovsky said.

 

According to the tour operator RZD Tour, on May 7, foreign fans booked a little more than 125 thousand seats on free trains of Russian Railways in all directions during the 2018 World Cup. This is 47% of booked seats on trains, 53% - for residents of Russia. The proportion coincides with the share distribution of foreigners and Russians in the amount of issued fan passports.

 

According to the general opinion of tour operators for inbound tourism, the peak season for foreign tourists in the Russian Federation will go to the end of July - early September, when the restrictions associated with the Championship will be removed.

 

According to information: atorus