Consul urges focus on Russian tourists
Realizing the influx of Russian tourists in the country, tourism industry stakeholders are now looking at attracting further this emerging market known to be one of the world’s high-worth tourism consumers.
Consul Armi L. Garcia of the Russian Consulate said that the increasing influx of Russian tourists in the country this year is a new wave that brings good news to the local economy of
According to statistics from the Department of Tourism, there were 3,405 Russian tourist arrivals last year and this particular market has increased 128 percent year on year brought about by growing focus and interest from the DOT and the private sector.
This number is also expected to grow even more this year as there were already some 2,267 Russian visitors for the first quarter alone.
DOT’s head for Team Europe Verna Buensuceso said that Russians contribute 10 percent of last year’s total tourism pie, a significant growth from previous years.
She said that Russian tourists usually spend an average of more than 100 US dollars a day and stay in the country around nine to 21 days on the average.
Russians are also great consumers of the country’s food and beverage as they make use of various value-added services offered in restaurants and five star hotels spending around 2,000 US dollars.
Because of this positive prospects of the Russian market, Consul Garcia stressed the need for all major stakeholders in the tourism sector to make an effort of understanding the demands of an unfamiliar market such as Russia.
“We have to pay attention to their interests, culture, cuisine and even business ethics, beliefs and decorum. You should be surprised that despite their stern exterior, we Filipinos actually have more similarities than differences with the Russians,” said Garcia.
She also added that Russians have 94 percent literacy rate so it should be expected that these tourists are well-educated and that they have already gotten a good grasp about the country so we have to present them with more interesting tourism activities as a host country.
“Players should come into synergy and come with a strategy to entice them to spend and see what we have to offer as a country. Although they came here as plain tourists but we have to entice them as businessmen so there will be a movement towards trade and from trade, they will eventually decide to invest in the country,” said Garcia.
She added that we should not let the Russians become only “fleeting” tourists in the country because they are currently one of the key players in the international policy stage.
“Trade and investments are inevitable consequences of tourism if do it right with systems and linkages in place. We should be able to bridge tourism with trade and trade to breed investments that will spell more jobs for our people and
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