Norway looser in Russian tourists’ boom

Travel expert says to BarentsObserver that Norway is far too expensive, while Finland and Sweden are becoming more popular destinations among Russians.

Over 12,6 million Russian tourists traveled abroad in 2010. This is 32 percent more than year before. The number of Russian travelers has already beaten the records of pre-crisis years. Many countries in the world experienced unprecedented growth in Russian visitors last year. Unfortunately Norway is not among these happy destinations.

Actually Norway was one of those few countries in the world where the number of Russian tourists fell down in 2010. Except Norway only Romania and Slovakia were among the outsiders in Europe. The statistics shows that number of Russian tourists to Norway decreased by 9 percent last year. In 2009 the fall was even more catastrophic – almost 33 percent compared to the year before. Some slight consolation could be 22 percent increase of number of business trips to Norway from Russia.

The statistics is published by the Russian Federal Agency for Tourism.

Norway loose - Neighbors gain
At the same time the closest neighbors of Norway – Sweden and especially Finland - demonstrate opposite tendencies. Last year the number of Russian tourists visiting these countries has sufficiently exceeded pre-crisis level. Two years ago Norway and Sweden received almost the same number of Russian travelers. But today Sweden is almost twice more popular than Norway: 12,800 against 25,300 Russian tourists.

In 2010 Sweden got 30 percent more Russian tourists than year before. Finland was visited by 27 percent more Russian tourists in 2010. But the number of business visits from Russia to these countries decreased by 6 and 7 percent correspondingly. In the absolute figures the number of Russian visitors to Norway looks funny compared to Finland. Each Russian tourist visiting the Land of Fjords stands against 55 Russians who traveled to Suomi in 2010.

Less interest in Russian destinations
The similar situation is observed with the number of Norwegian tourists who visited Russia last year. Their number in 2010 fell down by 19 percent compared to the year before or by 1/3 to the year 2008. But the number of business visits from Norway to Russia grew by 10%. Finnish travelers also loose enthusiasm towards Russia. Their number fell down by 7 percent in 2010. But the most cooled down tourists were the Swedes. Their number to Russia in 2010 decreased by 22 percent compared to the year 2009.

The business trips from Sweden to Norway decreased by 3 percent.

Low competitiveness on both sides
Barentsobserver asked Oleg Moseev, the head of press-service of the Russian Agency for tourism, to comment the situation with Norwegian and Russian tourists flows.

- We understand that Russia is still not enough competitive on the world tourists market, - said Oleg. We clearly see all our problems such as hard visa processing for the foreigners, complicated logistic, wrong price/quality correlation etc. One of the main challenges is inadequate price for our tour product. At this point we lose many potential visitors, says Moseev.

- Our “average tourist” to Russia today is normally the one who already has a good experience of travelling around the world and looks for something special and unique. We have a lot to offer but sometimes badly compete in promotion of our tours and do not provide better quality for reasonable price, Moseev explains.

The Russian Agency for tourism has a clear vision on what should be done to change the situation.

- Russia and Norway are both interested to intensify the tourists’ flows, says Oleg Moseev.

This was one of the topic discussed on the meeting of the Russian-Norwegian working group on tourism held in Oslo in the end of February. On this meeting the sides agreed to prepare a program of joint actions in the fields of tourism development which is be a basis for further cooperation development.

- The main reason why there are so few Russian tourists going to Norway is that the Norwegian tour product is still very expensive for our travelers. Norway does not offer competitive products which could be compared to Finland for example, says Moseev.

Sweden is now also very active and getting more and more popular. This month, a direct ferry boat connection between St. Petersburg and Stockholm via Tallinn will open.

- You must also keep in mind that not so many Russians can allow to travel abroad because of financial reasons and also due to visa challenges. Imagine that not more than 10 million Russian citizens have so-called foreign passports that give them right to go abroad. Another reason is that promotion of Norwegian destinations on our market is still on the low level. Before 2002 for example we did not see any promotion of Norwegian tours on the market. Then we observed some activation especially during and after the celebration of 300-years Anniversary of Saint Petersburg, says Oleg Moseev to BarentsObserver.

He hope that Norwegian tour operators will refresh their activity on our market.

- I believe Norway is very interesting and perspective direction especially for the North-West Russia.

Text: Andrey Shalyov