Special features of Russian tourist into Finland

August was a record-breaking month for land travel between Finland and Russia. South-eastern border officials registered over 700,000 crossings, more than ever before seen in a single month.

So far this year, there have been over 4.3 million crossings by road at border crossing points in the southeast. This is a more than a 10 per cent increase over the number seen January-August of last year. The record high traffic across the border has not led to an increase in criminal offenses or border rule violations
Russian visitors are overwhelmingly the largest group of tourists, accounting for nearly half of all overnight stays by foreigners in Finland in January.
The next largest groups are British and German tourists, whose numbers also declined. Only the number of travelers from Estonia, the Netherlands and the USA rose from last year's levels.
Domestic tourism by Finns has remained more or less steady.acoording to statistic Finland, Finland's tourism receipts rose to EUR 2.2 billion

Finland's tourism receipts from abroad rose to EUR 2.2 billion in 2008. The receipts increased by 5 per cent from the year before. The growth in tourism receipts was mostly due to continued robust inbound tourism from Russia. Tourism receipts from Russia grew by one-fifth from the year before to EUR 658 million. The share of Russia of Finland's tourism receipts rose to 30 per cent. Besides those from Russia, Finland's tourism receipts were also considerable from Sweden (EUR 321 million), Germany (EUR 171 million) and Britain (EUR 125 million). The share of tourism receipts of total service exports amounted to some 12 per cent in 2008.

As it is no news to us all that the Russians and Finnish people have a history typical destinations in Finland where they visit  

The Orthodox Cathedral

 A typical place where the Russians visit as it holds some kind of connection to them, it was built in 1868 on a rocky outcrop on Katajanokka peninsula, a site that had originally been set aside for an Imperial palace. The Cathedral is a reminder of the influence of Russia over the history of Finland and that the country belonged to Russia until 1919. It is now Western Europe’s largest Orthodox Cathedral. A statue of Tsar Alexander II still stands in the square in front of the cathedral. It is also among the top ten best tourist attractions in Finland.

Helsinki is very much a Finnish city too, with its distinctive Art Nouveau architecture and contemporary buildings, the influence of the Russian period of its history is still easy to see.

Finland’s tourism officials say Russians are now the largest group of foreign visitors, and they’re evident around town, whether in pricey restaurants or checking out the fashion stores on Aleksanterinkatu.

“Many of these bags go to Russia,” a tour guide said while passing the Louis Vuitton store on the Pohjoisesplanadi.

At Aero furniture store, which stocks Finnish design classics, a member of staff said that several Russians had bought the classic plastic bubble chairs — priced at 3,500 Euros ($5,148) each.

Helsinki markets its Russian flavor to visitors from other countries. On the Senate Square, there’s a shop selling Russian souvenirs, from Lomonosov porcelain to matryoshka dolls. You can also see Russian souvenirs at the harbor stalls that catch the cruise-ship trade. There’s even a nostalgic Bar Moskva.

A strange leftover from the Soviet era is a wistful statue of a woman in a windswept part of the harbor. Its inscription says that it’s a monument to Soviet and Finnish friendship dating from 1968.

Helsinki’s classic Russian-style buildings include the former officers’ casino on the harbor, a green-painted building that’s now a restaurant.

The city’s baroque Natural History Museum was built as a boy’s school by Russian architects and was originally named after Tsar Alexander II.

Russian tourists also wish to experience the Finnish Christmas with Christmas Eve Dinner and Father Christmas, As Finland is a home for famous Santa clause destination in Nordic regions.

Russian tourist behavior during the trips

When we realize Russian tourist behavior ,they would like to have  organized activities(like events, music concerts), good food and good service although they are also ready to pay for these things whatever it takes ,as we tried explain in the above Russian tourist consumer of high quality goods and services.

On the other hand Russian tourist behavior are little bit ignorant or arrogant when we compared to other nationalities tourist ,specially for finish people it is strange as they are very calm and peaceful. Here we have two things, Russian tourist are the major visitors as well as consumers of finlands tourist industry ,on the other hand the way Russian tourist behave it is a little bit difficult This may cause a problem on the service place so by creating new form of service in a way conducive  to both party  as marketing strategy  it is good to compromise and trying to give them the most best service this may impress them and would have increase the number of incoming tourist  to Finland as well as the tourist that already visited would love to come again cause they have got best service regardless of their personal behavior and feel comfortable with safety. This is the best thing that people need to feel when they are travel far from home.

Giving focus on the service matters towards Russian tourism is very ample issue cause they share the largest number of incoming tourist to finland.The other important thing that could be taken into consideration is the goods or commodities that are needed by Russian tourists. As we have seen earlier Russian tourist are interested in buying very classic and expensive goods, so in considering their test and needs if such items are available in Finland in adequate way with different variety would be also significant factor to keep them.