Tourist Office news

The Switzerland Travel Office in Russia and CIS countries is reported to have made a decision to spend US$.775,000.- for an advertising campaign in Russia.
Market specialists believe that the decision is due to the with the poor results for Switzerland as a destination. Russians going to Switzerland with travel purpose are less and les every years. According to the data of Federal Frontier Service, the number of Russian citizens visiting the country in 2002 were 66,000 in 2003 - 45,000, and in 2004 - 42,000. Therefore it does not comes as a surprise that Switzerland travel association decided to invest in advertising in Russia, as the travel industry is the fourth largest source of income in Switzerland's economy. 5 million Swiss francs were contributed by Russian tourists in the national economy last year. Vice-president of Switzerland National Travel Corp., Mr. Urs Eberhard has mentioned, that in the list of strategically growing markets which includes India and China, Russia is in the first place. In accordance with 2003 a number of overnights among Russian tourist increased on 12% in comparison with European countries which is 1-2%. "Russian tourists are more preferable since they stay in expensive hotels and prefer luxury holiday, active sports, shopping as well as give much attention to health and willingly chose SPA-hotels and treatment procedures. For example weekly trip to Davos starts from 1000 Euro and more. Statistic shows that Russians in average spend about 300-350 Swiss francs per day in comparison with Germans - 150-200 per day.

The Italian government is seriously working to increase number of tourists from Russia. The Province of Toscana is opening new office in Moscow, in spite of the existence of the Italian National Travel Office. Promoting the lesser known tourist regions, Italians wants to double a number of Russian tourists in forthcoming season, which raises some doubts among market players. A group of private entrepreneurs from Toscana wants to open a separate office in order to support a travel stream from Russia which increased 30% in 2004. Due to development of regional tourism, Italians want to increase the number tourist visits mainly from Russia and China. The new Toscana Travel Office will influence the market drastically and will probably change the situation leading to destination popularization. However the situation is only recording slight changes this summer season. According to the data of Federal Frontier Service, "Turkey is still leading destination among Russian citizens going for holiday. To be a leading destination they need at least to cancel visa regime and get the system "all-inclusive", stated experts.