Russia’s closer ties with the Gulf deliver an Arabic-speaking tourism boom
> 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 — 45km 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 #SaudiArabia drawn to the experience in the Dmitrov district 65km from the city centre, one of many such activity destinations dotted around the capital. https://www.gulf-times.com/article/721424/international/rest-of-the-world/russias-closer-ties-with-the-gulf-deliver-an-arabic-speaking-tourism-boom #Moscow #travel #tourism #Oman #UAE #Moscow #Qatar
