Might Russian tourists still show up?

Photo: Sander Ilvest

For this summertime season, worryingly low are bookings at Estonia’s hotels. Should visitors be down just as sharply as in winter, the blow for local tourism biz might prove severe. For several players, outright catastrophic. 

«At the moment, bookings are down from all main markets, but in a month we’ll see how dramatic it will be in peak season,» said Estonian Travel and Tourism Association president Külli Karing.

«If the 11 percent drop is carried over into the summer, the sustainability of the service may start to be affected, because in the summer period every percent equals a much larger amount of people and bigger money.» Lots of hotels make majority of their income in the summers and should the clients disappear, they might not be able to keep doors open.

At the beginning of the year, Estonia fell to the bottom of European tourism barrel, with Finland, and Slovakia, as in the other 16 nations surveyed by EU tourism committee the trend was uphill.

Due to poor economy, the Russians dropped their traditional travels to Estonia in the winter, leading to an over 11 percent drop, confirmed the study. The Finns, also dependent on Eastern neighbours, fared worse still – more than a fifth of visitors were lost.

Russians cut back travels into lion’s share of European nations, except for Montenegro and Romania. Therefore, the damage done to our tourism business revealed our deep addiction to visitors from the East, and an inability to replace Russian tourists with folks from elsewhere.

On top of the tourism services VAT rise, cold-bloodedly and ill-timely served up by the new government, entrepreneurs are troubled by the drying up of connections with the world outside. The disappearance of train lines to Moscow and St Petersburg may seem like a tragedy of the few railway companies, but Ms Karing says this is suffocating for all tourism companies.

Up to now, any new travel channel opened such as an air line has blessed Estonian hotels with added visitors. Tourism firms in Ida-Viru County, blooming mainly due to Russian citizens, acknowledge the downturn to come but believe their former good clients would still find the near-Narva beaches this summer as well.

To attract tourists, Ida-Viru people have joined forces, to sell packages of hotels, Narva Castle, mining museum, and Alutaguse Adventure Park.

«At the moment, the tempo of bookings is below the average, the foreign tourists are fewer as they desire more options, to see more places that would be attractive,» related Sergei Jegorovtsev, senior sales manager at Meresuu Hotel. 

«We are rather negatively affected by the campaign in Russia promoting internal tourism whereby they want people to visit Crimea and spend their money there, not in neighbouring Estonia.»

As for the tourism VAT in the situation where tourists are drying up is, according to Mr Jegorovtsev, a matter of life and death. «We expect the government to show understanding and support in the difficult situation: we would need help to advertise in neighbouring countries, not to have tax raised,» said Mr Jegorovtsev.

Thankfully, this past month the rouble has stayed stable, making the Estonian price level much friendlier towards Russians as compared to just a few months back. While the rouble rate plummeted and Russian travel agencies sizzled in bankruptcies, bookings were cancelled en masse.

«New companies arose in the place of those that went bankrupt, we begun to form relations with them, but there are fewer people coming via the new companies as the people trust them less,» admitted Mr Jegorovtsev. «At the moment, we have more of the domestic tourists than Russian ones, as we have made special offers for locals.»

Likewise, Narva-Jõesuu town government is predicting a drop in tourist arrivals, but is drawing its plans hoping that their summer-friends will still find the way back somehow.

«We hope that Russia being so close by the people will return,» said Narva-Jõesuu town government culture specialist Jevgeni Timoštsuk.

«A tourist will not leave behind as much money as last year. My acquaintances and friends from Russia reckon that perhaps they will stay at a hotel, eat breakfast there, but the supper they will buy in grocery store.»

With great festivity, this coming Sunday Narva-Jõesuu will open the beach season. Despite the fact that the longest beach in Estonia and probably in the Baltics was cleaned up by the start of this week and lined with changing rooms, as Postimees paid a visit is was just these five US students trying to have a good time there, who study Russian at Narva College.

It was so cold that the poor youth were shuddering. Hailing from Carolina, a lad said it was 30 degrees Celsius back home. Still, he said Narva-Jõesuu is a nice place to be.

A town of 2,700 inhabitants, Narva-Jõesuu swells to 15,000 in summer – mainly on account of Estonian domestic tourists and people from St Petersburg.

Private house stands strong

Elmar Zeinalov, Narva-Jõesuu house owner

As an inhabitant of Narva-Jõesuu, for three-four years already you a renting your property to tourists in summer.  How has your business been affected by the crisis, this past year?

The situation has remained as it was earlier. The flow of people is stable, but naturally they are grumbling more over the price list. Nevertheless, they are pleased to rent our house.

To my great surprise, I saw in an Internet portal that in Narva-, a three-room flat is rented out for summer at €1,500 a month. That the usual price in Narva-Jõesuu?

If the flat is in an old house, they ask substantially less. But in the new housing complexes, this is the very price. As well as in our house, by the way.

Will that mean that your house can be rented at that same price? Have enough clients?

Both last year and for this summer, we had people rent it for €1,500 a month and even above. They are grumbling that, due to the rouble rate change, it is harder for them to buy the service, as mainly they come from Russia. But the demand is there.

Are they coming from Russia, or are these Russians from other countries?

We had this instance where Russian speakers came from other countries and were pleased with our service.

How come that Russian speakers do find Narva-Jõesuu but other clients aren’t that easy to find?

We publish our ads in international Internet environments, in the Russian language, wherefore the Russian people just up and find us.

What do you offer them, in your house?

The price includes a large plot, a tennis court and basketball court, immediate access to the beach. The house has a separate bedroom, a large hall, sauna and all that is needed to be comfortable.