Russian tourists, what to expect?

Since 2008, Russian tourism has grown due to the country’s improving economy. The prospects for Russian tourism development were positive until the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. At this point, the Russian economy started to stagnate. At the start of the economic and political situation and sanctions in 2014, 3.2 million people took winter vacations abroad. This number declined by 40 % to 1.9 million in 2015.

What happened in Finland back then? Business stopped to consider Russians as a profitable group of tourists, they stopped to invest in development of services for Russians. They talked about huge "Russian crisis". I have said that many times before and I will continue saying it, there is always crisis going on in Russia. So, if you are looking for the easy road where everything works as you expect, do not choose Russia. Bad news is that if you are in tourism business in Finland you do not really have a choice. According to the last year's statistics, Russians are still the biggest group of foreign tourists. And Russians started to travel more again. Until the next crisis, I suppose.

So, what are the Russian tourism trends?

Quick last-minute decisions. Russians are known for their impulsive decision making and that is something that businesses must prepare themselves to also in the future. Accommodation for the short trips will be booked just a few days before the trip or even at the same day. Fortunately, very important and long-term trips will be booked beforehand (tourists do not really have a choice).

Uniqueness and individualism. In comparing to other countries Russians started to travel widely quite recently. Still, they search for the unique experiences and prefer trips with the certain topic they are interested in. This is relevant especially for millennials, this group search for unique emotions and knowledge.

Live like a local. Russians want to dive deep into the local culture of the places they visit. They want to know how locals live, they want to do the things locals do and eat the food locals eat. Offer them this possibility. Things you consider as usual can be very popular for Russians.

Short trips. In the future Russians will prefer shorter and more frequent trips. What could be a better trend for the neighbour countries?

Instagrammability. Like many others, also Russians will be affected by the possibility to create a nice and beautiful content for Instagram. So, the instagrammability of the locations will play a big role in the travel choices Russians make.

Of course, when we talk about trends we generalize. People are different, customer groups inside one country are different. It would be naive to think that every person the country with the population of 146 million people, behave the same way. I would suggest that before going to trends you really seriously analyze WHO is your customer.