UAE market thrives on Russian tourists

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Dec. 31 -- Russian tourists are buying nearly 4 billion UAE dirhams ($1.1 billion) worth of consumer goods every year from the UAE market, a Russian diplomat was Sunday reported as saying. The newspaper Khaleej Times quoted Ara Melikian, commercial counsellor of the Russian embassy in Abdu Dhabi, as saying the purchase, mainly from the emirates of Dubai and neighboring Sharjah, accounted for almost 20 times the official Russian imports from the United Arab Emirates. Russia's imports from the UAE in 1994 amounted to 185 million dirhams ($50.4 million).