11/08/2019 16:50

Finland did not get ready

[IMG=18449-4046] What is the winter season going to be like in Finland? Answering the questions, operators interviewed by a BANKO correspondent noted two main trends. The first trend which excited the market players is the increased demand for the New Year holidays (15–20%). Experts see the different reasons for the increased flow of Russian holiday-makers. Some believe that it could be caused by the drop of demand on tours to Paris because of the recent demonstrations (see news as of 7.11 and 10.11). ‘Now clients carefully consider France’, says Viktoria Zhenchevskaya, head of Scandinavian department DSBW. According to another opinion, it was provoke by the advertising campaign organized by MEK (Centre of tourism development of Finland). ‘Permanent informational support fundamentally influenced the increase’, says Konstantin Smirnov, head of the Finnish department of ‘Tour bureau Moscow’. There is also a version that the relative stagnation noticed on the market in the recent several years has finished and a new ‘live cycle’ of the Finnish product has started. Operators also note the increased depth of sales by approximately three weeks. For the moment around 90% of tours were sold for Christmas holidays. It is logical that the increased demand influenced the prices too: according to the market players, they grew by 10%. The average cost of the weekly package to Finland is 600 Euros. The second trend is closely tied to the first one but it is characterized as less positive one by market players: deficit of hotel rooms on popular resorts (according to experts, this year Rovaniemi, Kuusamo-Ruka, Vuokatti are the most popular locations). ‘Now there is a demand for 4-5* hotels, and there is a lack of them. As of 2-3* hotels they are more popular by clients of bus tours who prefer economy accommodation, but they are in minority’, says Alexey Petrov, general director of ‘Ristravel’. At the moment operators try to build their volumes basing it on the amount of available rooms, as the increase of the hotels is not expected. Specialists note that Finnish hoteliers do not hurry to create extra accommodation as they do not consider the situation to be balanced. The destination attracts Russian tourists mostly in winter, for a short period of time. Yet it is the Europeans who stay in these hotels for the rest of the time.