Scotland will start offering Russian holiday operators a guided tour of places connected to James Bond next month in a bid to attract more Russian tourists, a news report said.
Scotland's main tourism agency, VisitScotland, said it would take the travel agents to sites in the Highlands, Argyll and central Scotland, and a trade show at Glasgow's Scottish Exhibition and Conference Center in early April, BBC reported on Wednesday.
Glencoe House in Glencoe — the filming location for many of the scenes for "Skyfall," the latest Bond movie- will also be included among the tour sites.
Russia is Britain's 25th most important market for tourism, accounting for 0.7 percent of all overseas visits in 2012.
"Familiarization trips are an essential way of fueling the imagination of overseas tour operators, giving them ideas of how to package Scotland for their customers," VisitScotland's CEO Malcolm Roughead said.
"The character of James Bond has a long association with Scotland, from Sean Connery's first outing in 'Dr No,' right up to Glencoe's unforgettable appearance in 'Skyfall,'" he said.
James Bond movies have been popular in Russia since the Soviet era, when many of them were officially banned for featuring Soviet villains, such as Rosa Klebb in "From Russia With Love" and Boris Grishenko in "GoldenEye."
Besides Russia, holiday operators from the U.S., Canada, China, Denmark, Germany, Japan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE will also be given guided tours.
In 2012 Russian tourists spent £240 million during their stay in Britain, which is 1.3 percent of the total spent by overseas visitors.
