Standing in Red Square with my back against the rust-coloured walls of the Russian History Museum I try to work out what is missing. It's a cold, bright Saturday morning and the sunlight reflecting off the well-worn cobbles makes it difficult to see without squinting.
To my right are the Kremlin walls, which allow only tantalising glimpses of the palaces and golden cupolas within. To my left are the elegant arcades of GUM, the first Soviet department store. Pronounced 'goom', it used to be as dreary and spartan as its name sounds, but stroll through its designer boutiques and speciality shops today and you could be in Milan. Ahead is the riotous confection of St Basil's Cathedral built by Ivan IV to celebrate his victory over the Mongols before he turned Terrible, adopting a severed dog's head as his mascot and setting about the random torture and massacre of whole villages. Beyond is the steely grey Moskva River.
A party of Russian schoolchildren queue crocodile-style to enter Lenin's Mausoleum while a shivering bride poses for pictures wearing a silver puffer jacket over her white dress. Street vendors laden with Russian Army hats stand around smoking and waiting for business. And that's when it hits me. Where are all the tourists?
This must surely be one of the most impressive squares in any city. Maybe not the most beautiful but the vast, rolling expanse of it and the resonance of recent history are enough to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. A day's sightseeing here can range from the sublime - notably the eye-bulging collection of jewels and Fabergé eggs in the Kremlin's Armoury - to the vaguely ridiculous (though it's meant to be solemn) experience of visiting Lenin's embalmed body, which is creepy and surreal from start to finish.
While I would rather queue for 20 minutes in the cold to see a dead Socialist leader than stand for one minute in the sunshine watching a motionless mime artist pretending to be a statue on Barcelona's Ramblas, most people would not. Which explains why there are more British tourists in Barcelona than in Moscow on this and, indeed, most weekends.
In an attempt to reverse declining numbers of foreign tourists (put off by reports of soaring street crime and the war with Chechnya) the Moscow City Government has decided to make the Russian capital - and its people - more welcoming for visitors. Within the next two years, Moscow will open its first tourist information centre and create 20 landscaped 'tourist zones' with cafes, toilets, benches, signposting and souvenir shops. It will also train a special tourist police force, which will patrol visitor hotspots, such as the Kremlin and Red Square, offering assistance and peace of mind to visitors.
There are also plans to build more three-star hotels to bridge the accommodation gap between Soviet-era monstrosities such as the 6,000 room Hotel Rossia and the luxurious five-star Hotel Baltschug Kempinski which sit facing each other on opposite banks of the Moskva River. The new tourism strategy goes far beyond the cosmetic: it will also attempt to get under the skin of the Russian people with a government-sponsored campaign to teach the citizens of Moscow to smile. Not at each other, because they do that anyway, but at tourists.
The idea goes something like this: rather than drumming their fingers impatiently on the counter, shopkeepers will help customers as they fumble to count out their roubles. Instead of blank stares, policemen will happily give directions to lost tourists and taxi drivers will resist the urge to wheel-spin off into the distance as new and bemused arrivals stutter over unpronounceable street names.
'It's a very serious issue,' says Sergei Ananov, deputy chairman of Moscow City Government's tourism committee. 'People need to change mentally. This campaign will educate Muscovites to raise their sense of hospitality and teach them that tourists are good for the economy.'
This drive to attract tourists is all part of a wider strategy by the energetic Mayor Yuri Luzhkov to revitalise the city centre, which has encompassed everything from filling in potholes to major building projects, ranging in scope from Russia's first Ikea store (causing three-hour traffic tailbacks as Russians clamoured for their first encounter with flat-pack furniture) to the imposing Church of Christ the Saviour, Moscow's largest cathedral. Originally built to commemorate Napoleon's expulsion in 1812, it was destroyed by Stalin in 1931 to make way for the Palace of the Soviets, a colossal skyscraper which was to be dominated by a 300ft statue of Lenin. The building failed to materialise and the site became an enormous outdoor swimming pool.
When the question of what to do with the site was put to the Russian people they voted to rebuild the cathedral. The blinding white walls and gilded domes of the £209 million structure now dominate the northern bank of the Moskva River - another 'must see' on the tourist map.
Moscow is changing rapidly and the pace can be bewildering for tourists and residents alike. Though Stalin's seven gothic skyscrapers still ring the city, other relics of the Communist era have been put out to grass. Statues of Brezhnev, Stalin and the feared founder of the KGB, Dzerzhinsky, sit quietly in a neglected plot of land known as the Graveyard of Fallen Monuments while in nearby Gorky Park children clamber over a Russian space shuttle which now serves as a fairground attraction.
But as is often the case, it's the subtle changes which are the most significant. As I checked in at the Lufthansa desk for my flight home, the Russian clerk handed back my tickets with a shy smile and murmured something. I could be wrong but I think she said: 'Have a nice day'.
Moscow 'must sees'
The Kremlin: political, religious and historic nucleus of the city. Within its walls are several beautiful churches, the Armoury with its collection of jewels and Fabergé eggs and the Patriarch's Palace.
Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts: Moscow's answer to St Petersburg's Hermitage, including an impressive collection of French Impressionist art.
Red Square: traditionally a place for gatherings, declarations and protests, home to St Basil's Cathedral and Lenin's Mausoleum.
Church of Christ the Saviour: work on Moscow's biggest cathedral finished this year.
Cathedral of the Assumption: beautiful icons and richly painted interior formed a backdrop to the coronation of Russia's Tsars.
• Joanne O'Connor flew to Moscow with Lufthansa (08457 737 747) via Frankfurt. The airline has 11 daily flights to Moscow from five UK airports. Accommodation at the Hotel Baltschug Kempinski, which overlooks Red Square and St Basil's Cathedral, starts at $400 a night for a standard room (00 800 426 313 55).
