The northeastern region of Ida-Virumaa in Estonia, which borders Russia to the north and east and is in high demand due to spa spas in Russia, especially in St. Petersburg, has given up on attracting Russian tourists. Instead, local authorities will promote their sights to Latvian neighbors, the Estonian newspaper ERR News reported.
According to him, the course for a full-scale replacement of Russian tourists was preceded by a normal vote. Travel agencies and companies in the resort region conducted a survey on who to focus on: Latvian, Finnish or domestic travelers. Latvia “won” by a small margin. However, experts have warned that Latvian tourists will not make up for the loss of Russian tourism.
“Only the main foreign market of Estonia, Finland, can be replaced by the missing Russians. We have already started work, but the volume of tourists will not recover quickly. Today we have decided to remove the Russian market from our markets, and in addition to Finland, we will work in the Latvian market, “said Kadri Jalonen, Ida-Virumaa Tourism Coordinator. The national tourist site of Estonia visitestonia.com already offers the full version of the resource in Latvian.
It is not easy to convince Finns of the attractiveness of the eastern region of Estonia. Earlier, Jalonen explained that there is a geographical “barrier”: the Estonian region is far from Finland (the two countries share the Gulf of Finland), but close to the Russian border.
Hotel Narva, located in the city of the same name on the border of two states – Estonia and Russia – previously worked independently to attract tourists from France, Germany and Scandinavia. And now he spoke in support of the new direction of the source of tourists. “This is a great decision, because our hotel did not take such steps in the Latvian direction. With the help of the cluster, we will gain new customers, “said Narva Hotel Director Volodymyr Aret.
During the evidence period, Russian tourists accounted for just over a quarter of all tourists in the northeastern Ida-Viru County. After Russia’s war against Ukraine, cross-border tourism in the country fell by almost 90 percent.