Russian tourists spent almost a billion Euros in Catalonia in 2016

“The Russian tourists spent 972 million Euros in Catalonia in 2016, which is 23% more than a year ago”, - said the Secretary of the Tourism Ministry of the region Joan Aregeau. "In 2016, Catalonia was visited by 560,000 Russian tourists, 4% more than a year earlier. They spent 972 million Euros for the rest period, 23% more than the result of 2015", - he stressed at the press conference at the MITT exhibition. According to J.Aregeau, now the depth of sales of tours to Catalonia on the Russian market is higher than a year ago. "The Euro for Russians fell by 20% compared with March 2016. Now we can not return to the level of 2014, when Catalonia received up to a million tourists, but the situation is much better than in the last year. The number of scheduled flights to the region increased by 9%. Totally 1683 regular flights of different airlines are scheduled. Last year, 50% of the flow of Russian tourists was taken by regular flights, another 50% - by charters, According to him, two-thirds of Russians come to the region from Moscow and St. Petersburg, a third - from the regions. "We expect a 10% increase of the tourist flow in 2017. Expectations could be higher, but the return of Turkey on the market has corrected the plans. Turkey is a serious competitor for Spain", - said Tourism director of the business department of Catalonia Octavi Bono.