RUSSIAN Ambassador to the Philippines Igor Khovaev along with his First Secretary Dmitry Larionov paid a courtesy visit to Negros Occidental Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. at the Provincial Capitol Friday.
He said he can see great potential in Negros Occidental tourism through the Russian market.
He told the governor over lunch that the very delicious food is one of the factors that will attract Russians to spend their vacations and holidays in Negros Occidental.
He said that the Russian market is an ideal market because Russians stay longer, travel with family, respect local history and spend a lot of money, which in effect, will be good to the economy.
He said that every year more than 20 million Russians travel in other parts of the world especially tropical countries.
Last year, more than one million Russians went to Thailand, 500,000 went to Vietnam but only about 40,000 visited the Philippines.
Statistics showed that last year Negros Occidental got 1.7 million tourist arrivals, of which 5,303 tourists were Russians.
The Russian official promised the governor to draw attention to Negros Occidental especially to possible investors and invited him to attend the Tourism Fair and Exhibition in Russia so that he can aggressively promote Negros Occidental to the Russian market.
"It is not common for Russians to smile a lot but the Filipinos infected me with the 'smile virus' so I smile more here in the Philippines and when Russian people smile, they are very sincere."
He said there are nurses and caregivers in Russia who are also working part-time as English language teachers. He said that Filipinos are very smart people and they can speak so many languages.
Marañon expressed his profound gratitude to the ambassador for visiting Negros Occidental and briefed him on bountiful marine resources found in the province. (PR)