Over the past five years the number of overnights spent by the Russians in Switzerland during summer months has been steadily growing. In 2008 there were 172 thousand of them (+15% to the previous year's figures), in 2009 – over 186 thousand (+8%), 2010 – 196.3 thousand (+12.4%), 2011 – almost 216 thousand (+10%), and 2012 – 244.3 thousand (+12.4%). The most popular types of trips in the summertime are city breaks, among which the leader is Zurich – during the previous year alone the number of Russian overnights in this city's hotels grew by 21.2%. The rating continues (in descending order) with Geneva, Montreux, Lausanne, Lugano, Basel, Lucerne, and Bern. Last year's most impressive growth was shown by Basel (+66.4%).
To match the fast-advancing demand the country's flag-carrying airline, Swiss, announced the launch of two regular direct weekly flights from Geneva to Saint Petersburg from July 25 in addition to a daily service from Russia's northern capital to Zurich.
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