A tour of the hotspots of a creative renaissance that could lift Moscow’s profile as a cutting-edge destination
Around
4.5m foreign tourists travel to the Russian capital annually. That’s
about the same as Prague, but is a long way behind London’s 15m
international visitors or Paris’s 8.5m. Moscow’s city authorities are
determined to change that situation and have set a goal of 10m annual
visitors by the end of this decade. Reaching that target would catapult
Moscow into tourism’s premier league and establish the city as one of
the top 10 travel destinations in the world.
With
Strelka now involved in further urban regeneration projects around
Russia, Moscow’s creative renaissance looks likely to spread further.
When I meet Varvara Melnikova, Strelka’s director, she is forthright
about her aims for the institute. “Our mission,” she says, “is to change
the physical and mental landscape of Russia.”
With ambition like that, Moscow may yet make it into tourism’s premier league.
