The tourists flow from Russia to Slovakia is growing for two years in succession

In the first quarter of this year 10157 Russian tourists visited Slovakia, which is almost 20% more than in the same period a year ago. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Transport of Slovakia, in 2016 almost 36 thousand Russians visited the country, which exceeded the previous year's figure by 21%. The dynamics are positive, but the figures are far from pre-crisis indicators: in 2014 65 thousand Russians came to Slovakia. In total for the past year the country has hosted over 5 million foreign tourists. The share of Russians in this stream is about 2%. The main markets for Slovakia are Czech Republic, Poland, Germany and Hungary. Although Russia does not “make weather” in this direction, some characteristics of our tourist flow are above average. So, the average tourist stays in Slovakia 2.9 days, Russians - 3.5. And our stream is growing faster this year than average - 20% against 8.5%. So, according to tour operators, this year may show a recovery of previous volumes. One of the shortage of the direction was the absence of direct flight from Russia. However, from the end of 2015, Pobeda airline has launched a direct flight to Bratislava from Moscow. The flight solved the problem of transport accessibility, although the prices for the flight are high.