Sochi: 160,000 tourists a day during New Year holidays

SOCHI, Russia - Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi welcomes about 160,000 tourists a day during the New Year holidays, the city’s Mayor Anatoly Pakhomov told reporters on Sunday.

“In the past, we used to have that many tourists only in summer, in August,” he said.

The “open sky” regime for Sochi’s international airport offered new directions in development of Sochi’s tourism, the mayor added.

“From June, we shall have communication with Iran and with China,” he said.

The mayor said that earlier at a meeting with China’s minister of tourism the Chinese official said at least two million tourists from China would visit the Russian resort in 2015.