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Russian tourism is important to Spain and many
are taking advantage of the Golden Visa system
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Following the boon to the Russian economy a few years ago,
many of the newly-minted middle class of the country started heading further
west than they usually did, moving from the Black Sea Coast to the
Mediterranean.
After taking in the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas they
decided that Spain was the place for them, with tourism peaking in 2014 shortly
before the Russian economy collapsed once again following the massive dip in
oil prices.
During the next two years it became difficult for Russians
to go further afield for their vacations following wage cuts and a bad exchange
rate, but things could be once again on the mend.
ATOR say that some 3.3% more Russian tourists visited Spain
in 2016 over 2015. While it is still over a third less than the record 883,000
tourists of 2014, it’s still representative of a nice turnaround in the
economies of both Spain and Russia.
ATOR said that between January and September of 2016 Spain
was the most popular travel destination for travellers from Russia.
Greece was the most popular Russian tourist destination for
a brief time in 2014, with over one million Russians heading to the country
during the first nine months of 2014. Russians stayed away from the country
following the Greek economic crisis and now Spain has moved ahead of Turkey,
Thailand and Cyprus to be number one again.
As far as expenditure for guests goes Russians have always
been generous to their Spanish hosts and will spend an average of €104 per
head, which is about how much your average British tourist spends.
Spanish resorts will no doubt be revelling in the roubles but
there has been extra data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) showing
that there’s very little for Spain to worry about as far as attracting foreign visitors goes. The amount of visitors up to October was up 11% year-on year
with foreigners spending almost €70 million euros during the first ten months
of 2016; an increase of 16.3%. So Spain is bringing in more tourists and these
tourists are spending more money.
21% of all the foreign expenditure in Spain for 2016 came
from Brits, with Germans coming in second at 17.1%.
