Under a new air travel agreement slated to be signed at the Bush-Gorbachev summit, Americans would be able to sample glasnost and local delights in some of the more exotic Soviet cities.
Americans longing to see the ancient Golden Gate in Kiev or diamond mines in Magadan, Siberia, would finally get their wish. They also would be able to fly to Minsk, Tbilisi, Khabarovsk (another Siberian city) and Riga, the capital of Latvia.New flights to those places from the United States are sure to be filled, Alexey Mesiatsev, a spokesman for Intourist, the Soviet tourism organization, said Tuesday.
"Demand is very big right now; the Soviet Union is one of the hottest tourist destinations," Mesiatsev said from his office in New York.
He said some 150,000 Americans visited the Soviet Union last year, up from 125,000 in 1988, 110,000 in 1987 and 25,000 in 1980 - when relations between the two countries hit a low point.
Nearly all arrived by air. Commercial flights between the two countries now serve New York, Washington, Moscow and Leningrad.
So far at least, U.S.-Soviet travel has been mostly a one-way street. Only 460 Soviet citizens visited the United States last year, most of them officials on tours organized around glasnost themes.
Under the new agreement, concluded on Sunday, air travel between the two superpowers will be greatly expanded, possibly quadrupled. And the two countries also will inaugurate regular cargo flights.
The air agreement represents closer ties as Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev tries to get a grip on his troubled economy. He will meet with President Bush beginning Thursday.
The air travel accord will add four U.S. cities - Anchorage, Alaska; Chicago, San Francisco and Miami - and the six new Soviet cities to current airline routes.
Six additional U.S. airlines will be allowed to fly between the two countries, and a planned new Soviet airline will be able to participate in U.S.-Soviet service.
Currently, only Pan American World Airways and the Soviet national airline Aeroflot fly U.S.-Soviet routes. Aeroflot launched its first major marketing campaign in the United States last spring.
A number of U.S. carriers have expressed interest, including Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, Alaska Airlines and Northwest Airlines.
Delta spokesman Neil Monroe said his airline plans to apply to the Transportation Department for permission to fly between Delta's base of Atlanta and Moscow and possibly Leningrad and Tbilisi. The latter, the capital of the Soviet republic of Georgia, is the sister city of another Georgia town, Atlanta.