Number of Russians to Finland doubled
The number of Russians visiting Finland has doubled from 2005 to 2008. While 373,000 Russians got Finnish visas in 2005, the number for 2008 is expected to reach 735,000.
Finnish newspaper Karjalainen quoted the Finnish Foreign Ministry as saying that the number of visa applications filed by Russians this year is expected to amount to 735,000, compared with about 373,000 in 2005, Newsroom Finland reports. Finland has not only turned into a major transport route for trade between the EU and Russia, it has also developed into a major centre for tourism and trade focussed on the Russian market. Finnish tourist complexes, among them in Lapland, annually attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists. Finland is also known for having far smoother and well-developed visa services than several of the other Schengen-countries, among them Norway. It is the Finnish General Consulate in Sankt Petersburg which issues the by far biggest part of the visas.
