Grupo Vapf

Spain, soon-to-be third favourite tourist destination among Russians

If the trends continue as expected, Russia will be an emerging market for the tourist industry in Spain, with over a million tourists. Spain could become the third favourite tourist destination for Russians behind Egypt and Turkey.

The Russian economy is in a solid way to full recovery and the trend shows that it will keep a constant recovery rate of 4% on the next years. The UNWTO —World Tourism Organization— states that Russia is currently one of the main tourist-producing countries in the world, and the fastest-growing one, with 20% more tourists in 2010.

To complement this data, the head of Tourism in Spain, Joan Mesquida, points out that this increase is the result of advertising campaign made by the government of Spain, economic incentives on airport fees for new routes and frequencies from and to Russia, the recent decision if the Spanish government to lessen the bureaucratic process for visas, the outsourcing of the visa granting process (it has doubled in the last 5 years) and obviously, because of the predilection of Russians for sunny, coastal destinations.