Asian tourist numbers in Russia: The number of Asia tourists visiting Russia are continuing to grow as tourism from the European Union and the U.S. declines, according to new statistics. In the first nine months of 2014, the biggest number of foreign tourists visiting Russia came from China (358,200), up 10% year on year: South Korea (70,000, up 57%): and Japan (49,000, up 4%), According to official figures published by the Russian Federal Statistics Service. Meanwhile, the number of German tourists in Russia dropped by 8% to 318,700 with the American total down 34% to 120,900. “So far, the deterioration of foreign relations has not affected the inflow of tourists as the shortfall in visitors from the West has been offset by tourists from the east,” says head of research at Russ-Invest Dmitry Bedenkov. rbth