HELSINKI, January 16. /TASS/. Inbound tourism from Russia shrank by about 20% in 2014, the Finnish Foreign Trade Minister, Lenita Toivakka told TASS on Friday.
The fact was causing big concern in the Finnish government circles, she said.
“Collaboration between Russia and Finland in the sphere of tourism is very smoothly working, as the Russians are glad to travel in Finland and the Finns love going to Russia,” Toivakka said. “That’s why it’s really saddening to see what’s happening today.”
“The streets and shops are deserted and just recall that we tailored all of our tourists services to suit the Russian travelers in a big measure,” she said.
As one of the main reasons for the shrinkage, Toivakka named the fall of the ruble’s exchange rate.
“Still we hope all of these problems and the crisis at the political level will end soon enough and we’ll be able to revert to normal relationship,” she said.
Finland is not the only country experiencing a drop in the numbers of Russian tourists. In 2014, Thailand reported a decrease in inbound Russian tourism, in contrast to a continuous steady growth since the beginning of this century.
Thai national tourist board said on Friday a total of 1.6 million Russians visited the kingdom in 2014 and this was 8.2% less in 2013.