"The cities that will host the matches are completely ready to accept about 1.5 million tourists — these figures include only people who are purchasing or planning to buy tickets for matches, without mentioning people, who will just be coming to see Russia, to visit our cities, to become familiar with the culture of Moscow… We can estimate that at least 2 million tourists will visit Russia over the course of one month," Mikhail Degtyarev said.
The lawmaker went on by saying that Russian authorities would host not only the FIFA World Cup, but also "a hospitality championship."
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Russia will host its first FIFA World Cup from June 14 to July 15. The matches will take place in Kaliningrad, Kazan, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov-on-Don, Samara, Saransk, Sochi, St. Petersburg, Volgograd, and Yekaterinburg.
