CIS hotel rates drop due to lack of Russian tourists

According to a research by the Hotellook.ru online service, this year's consistent drop in the tourist flow from Russiacaused hotel rates in Lithuania, Latvia, Georgia, and Ukraine to collapse. First quarter of 2015 revealed a 40% decrease in the number of Russian citizens' going abroad compared to the same period of the previous year - reports Russian Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat). In Latvia, a share of Russians in the overall inbound tourist flow used to reach 22%. The second place belongs toGermany, which is responsible for just 11% of the flow to Latvia. For example an average hotel rate in May went 26% down, from $121 to $89 per night. The same pattern goes for Lithuania, where an average cost of a hotel night decreased by over 30%, from $108 to $74. In Hotellook's view, the same issue caused a 2% drop in international arrivals to Georgia in the first quarter of the year. And an average hotel night became $30 cheaper, from $94 to $64. As for percentage ratio, the most significant change has occurred to Ukraine - 36% price drop, from $87 to $55. In 2014, reports the State Statistics Service of the country, the tourist flow from Russia lost 77% when compared to the previous year. The research points out, that there is no such tendency in countries not heavily reliant on the tourist flow from Russia. To the contrary, the hotel prices tend to increase there. In Poland, where a share of Russian tourists is just slightly more than 4%, hotel rates has increased from $97 to $133 over the last year.