Spain is popular among tourists from different countries. In recent years, Russian tourists have dominated the Spanish inbound tourism. It appears that 2011 will not be different.
According to the data published by The Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR), the number of Russian tourists who visited Spain in 2010 exceeded the number of visitors in the pre-crisis year 2008 by 19%. Also, in 2010 the most Russian tourists in the history of country’s outbound tourism arrived in Spain. The year by year growth rate was 43.4%.
Compared to 2008 and 2009, Russia surpassed Austria and Finland in 2010 and settled on a fourteen position in the overall ranking of arrivals to Spain. Therefore, 2010 was the best year in the history of Russian outbound tourism to Spain. In comparison with the previous most successful year 2008, nearly 100,000 more Russian tourists decided to travel to the country. In 2009, the decline in Russian outbound tourist flow to Spain amounted to more than 17%.
Obviously, in the coming season the Spanish market expects growth in the number of Russian tourists. Because of the redistribution of Egyptian and Tunisian tourists, the overall growth of Spanish inbound tourism is expected. Apparently, such situation will lead to a shortage of hotel capacity. Therefore, Russian tourists in Spain will rise in the same way as the tour operators will be able to increase its share in Spanish hotel industry. In the same time experts point out that the prices of hotel rooms in Spain will rise this summer by about 10% on average, compared to prices in 2010.