New figures from Russia’s federal tourism agency show Chinese tourists dolled out over 2 billion US dollars in shopping through the country last year.
Rostourism is reporting Chinese tourists were responsible for anywhere from 5 to 20 percent of the revenues at major malls in the cities of Moscow and St Petersburg last year.
It’s also reporting an increased demand for luxury hotels in Russia.
More than 1.2 million Chinese tourists visited Russia last year.
This is an 87 percent increase over 2014.
The same stats show the number of tourists arriving in Russia from China on a visa-free exchange basis through the first quarter of this year jumped by close to 50-percent from a year earlier.