On the eve of
Christmas holidays two countries at once - the Czech
Republic and Slovakia – have
decided to pursue a more loyal visa policy in regard to Russians. Thus,
starting from January 2013, the Czechs will be issuing a multiple entry visa
for a year for Russians upon condition that they already have got one multiple
or two single-entry Schengen visas. Operators were officially informed on it by
the Czech Consulate.
There were no official
announcements from the Consulate of Slovakia; however, the local media gave
detailed information from the press-conference of the Minister of foreign
Affairs Miroslav Lajcak about Slovakia’s
intent to issue Russians multiple entry Schengen visa valid for two years.
Moreover, those who already have Schengen visas can get visa for five years.
The Consulate also promised to reduce the time of issuing visas to several
days.
Due to its geographic
proximity and its location in the heart of Europe,
both countries complement each other and perfectly go together as a combined
tour. Along with Hungary and
Poland,
they remain the most affordable. Nevertheless, the Czech
Republic and Slovakia are
very different and can’t be compered by demand on Russian travel market.
The Czech Republic
is at the peak of its popularity now. Since 2001 tourist flow from Russia is
growing by 16% annually and has reached the number of 500 thousand people in
2011. Russians take the second place right after main Czech Republic’s
tourists – Germans. According to the Czech Tourism, this New Year Prague is
expecting about 60 thousand Russians to come. The main international flow
through Vaclav Havel Airport Prague accrues on Russia – 60 flights per week to 12
Russian cities. And that’s not counting Charter flights to other Czech cities.
There are two main places to visit in Czech
Republic - first of all, Prague for excursions, weekends, shopping, and the famous
health resorts - Karlovy Vary
and Marianske Lazne. Nevertheless, both Russian and Czech experts are sure, that
there could be at least three times more Russians in the Czech Republic, but
for visa complicacy about which RATA-news wrote more than once.
Slovakia
asserts itself weakly yet. According to Russian statistics the flow of Russians
doesn’t overcome three thousand people per year. Nevertheless, it’s growing as
well. Local sanatoriums with its treatment are in demand here. For example, Slovakia has
appeared in Vande International Tour Company a bit more than half a year ago,
exactly in the forefront of growing demand. According to the manager of the
destination Yulia Ovchinnikova, the country is promising, first of all due to
its low prices: “Europe is missing such a
budget option. All the more, besides the treatment, ski holidays can be offered
in Slovakia.
Lately a lot has been done here to improve the infrastructure”. Plans of the
Slovak Consulate can only be welcomed as now it takes about two weeks to get
visa to the country; and a multiple-entry visa will be an additional motivation
to good prices, believes the interlocutor.
However, most of the
operators dealing with the Czech Republic
keep Slovakia
mostly as an alternative. “We didn’t notice any special burst of demand for Slovakia. It is
not excluded that the opportunity to obtain a multiple-entry Schengen visa will
change the situation. Prices of treatment at the Slovak resorts are very
attractive; this country has its own client», - told the Director of Vendi Tour
Group Company Irina Fedina to RATA-news. However, according to her, it’s still
difficult to predict whether the visa policy will increase the tourist flow, as
not everything is decided by visas. Yulia Ovchinnikova agrees that along with
the entry simplification a suitable transportation is needed. “Now only UTair
has flights to Bratislava
and there are not enough of them. There are problems with trains as well. If
someone wants to travel to Tatry in winter – train takes a lot of time and the
flights are inconvenient”, - she explained. By the way, according to the Slovak
statistics, there were 24% more Russians at sky resorts last winter and a lot
of them travelled by their own cars.
According to the
Director of Travelsystem Company Irina Lurie, the Czech Republic
has an excess of conveyance. “The destination is very popular and this year there’s
an obvious excess of both regular and charter flights. I believe despite the
demand, there are problems with loading and a lot of flights go west”, - she
noted. The interlocutor believes after introduction of the multiple-entry visas
to the Czech Republic, tour operators will lose some
of their clients. A lot of them will command the services of tour operators
only for the first time travel, and afterwards will be organizing their
vacations themselves. “On the other hand we work with several European destinations
which started issuing multi-entry visas long time ago. And yet we felt no
serious customer attrition”, - she said.
Experts also believe
that Slovakia is not
promoted in Russia
very well. “The Czech
Republic already has it,
that’s why current visa initiative is a very good chance to increase the flow,
- says Irina Fedina. – Until then it was not an easy thing to obtain visa to
The Czech Republic; and it slowed down the demand. Our office in St. Petersburg was a good
example: as soon as special offers were issued, they were immediately snatched
up as a lot of tourists here have multiple-entry Finnish visas”, - she
explained. According to her, the joy is
extinguished by the fact that starting from 2014 Schengen countries an
obligatory procedure of biometrics, which means that every tourist will have to
go to the Consulate personally.
