Russians are starting to visit Germany more often
According to the German Federal Statistics Bureau, which keeps track of the country’s hotel room occupancy rates, Russian tourists have been staying in Germany 28-30% more often than in 2010. It’s the best result among countries that send their citizens as tourists to Germany, states Deutsche Welle. 15 years ago 2/3 of all visas issued to Russian citizens, were for business purposes. Now it’s the other way around – 2/3 of visas go to tourists.
Experts say that the tourist flow might have been bigger if Russians could spend some more on their vacation. According to the Russian Public Opinion Research Center, the average expense amount per tourist in 2010 was 16 thousand 759 roubles (little more than €400). That is not enough for an adequate vacation in Germany, especially if you count in the expensive plane tickets.
But the prices are not the most important issue. Irina Vorobyeva, expert of “2K Audit – Business consultation/Morrison international”, told Deutsche Welle that Germany’s popularity could be higher if the visa application procedure at the embassy was simpler. Lately Russian tourists have started traveling on their own, without the help of tour operators, so they have to obtain visas for themselves. And the mentioned procedure at the German embassy is considered to be a tough one.
When choosing a destination, Russian tourists more often decide between Berlin and Munich. But lately they’re showing interest in other regions as well. Once they were unpopular because of the reunion of Germany, but now former East German territories are having a renaissance. Such “pearls” as Leipzig, Dresden and Weimar as well as the Baltic shore are attracting Russian tourists. And the last trend is event-tourism, which is gaining popularity among Russian tourists. Castles of Bavaria are still very popular. Also, this year many tourists have decided to make a big trip around the whole country.
In the first half of 2011, according to Rosstat’s data, Germany was in the top-5 destinations, visited by Russian citizens, leaving behind even Egypt. In the first six months of this year 604 thousand Russians visited the Federal Republic of Germany (during the same period in 2010 – only 439 thousand). Most popular countries turned out to be Finland (over 2 million visitors), Turkey (1.4 million), China (more than 1 million) and Estonia (almost 800 thousand). Deutsche Welle explains that Finland, China and Estonia are so high up in the charts simply because of their geographical proximity, not because if their level of tourism. If we look at the Rosstat statistics on tourist visas, we’ll see that Turkey is leading with 1.1 million visas and Germany is only on 6th place with 324 thousand visas.