Nguyen Van Son, a football fan from Cau Giay district, Hanoi said he managed to book a tour to Russia to watch the 2018 World Cup but had to pay the high price of VND120 million for a 9-day tour including match tickets. However, he still missed the opening ceremony and has to wait until June 19 for his flight to Russia.The number of visitors travelling to Russia for the world cup has ballooned compared to the normal amount of tourists. Notably, some businesses organized tours to Russia for their staff to watch the World Cup. Almost all tours have been fully booked and some travel operators refused to take any more bookings.
Some travel firms in Vietnam have launched tour packages to Russia at prices from VND60-80 million each. However, for an actual seat to watch the matches, customers had to spend an additional VND15-130 million per ticket. Some tourists spent up to VND200 million to fly to Russia to watch football matches.
Tran Van Bay, director of Vietravel said the number of visitors booking tours to Russia for the World Cup has tripled compared to last year. To ensure the quality of tours, from early June the company has refused to take new bookings for when World Cup is underway.