In 1917 the number of Russian tourists decreased drastically and in the following decades Italy was visited only by politicians and the number of travelers was insignificant. Russian tourism started growing only at the beginning of the 90s in the previous century. Rapid growth of visitors from Russia made it one of the major players in the Italian tourist market. We should keep in mind that twenty five years ago Russians were forbidden to travel abroad except for very few privileged citizens. According to the latest information published by Rostourism organization 20,139,000 Russian tourists travelled abroad in 2014.
Today holidays in Italy are among the most popular destinations among Russian tourists. Ten per cent of all foreign tourists in Italy are Russians.
President of Trademark Italia Aureliano Bonini, said in his interview to that Italy should study what Russian tourists prefer doing, eating and seeing in more detail. According to him Russian tourists represent different strata of the Russian society. They may be residents of Moscow and Saint Petersburg or people from far away villages which influences their preferences. Thus we should deepen our knowledge of people from Russia so as to provide them with variety of special offers.
There exist a great number of various tours around the country. Among them are excursions, seaside holidays, mountain treks, shopping tours, events and education and professional training visits.
81
On the average a classical Italian tour lasts seven days. Tourists may spend one to three days in the country if Italy is part of their European tour. Seaside holidays usually last 10-14 days.
Most people travel to Italy by air all year round. There is also a possibility of a combination tour with arrival in Rimini by plane, using a bus during the stay and then flying back home to Russia. These combination tours may include visits to neighboring countries: France, Switzerland, Austria and Spain.
The activities of travel agencies are obviously seasonal. On the contrary, charter shopping tours (Rimini, Forli, Ancona and Bari) are organized all year round. They are successfully combined with bus excursions around the country.
Charter flights are available both from Moscow and the regions (Saint Petersburg or Rostov-on-Don). It’s possible to reach Italy by train as well.
Previously there was another option: a train №015B which joined Moscow and Venice twice a week and it took 62 hours to get to destination. But not anymore.
There are also regular bus trips between Russia and Italy. Usually they leave from Saint Petersburg for the largest Italian cities: Milan, Turin, Florence, Rome and Naples.
The citizens of Russia as well as the citizens of former Soviet Union republics need a visa to go to Italy since Italy is one of the Schengen Agreement countries. Visa processing period varies from four to fifteen days during high season. In some urgent cases it’s possible to get an urgent visa.
82
There is another interesting aspect which is worth mentioning: the amount of money Russian tourists spend in Italy. According to statistics a Russian spend 194 euro a day, more than the Japanese (152 euro) and the American (114euro). It is twice as much as the Brazilian and three times more than the Chinese. And it keeps increasing due to investments in communication and tourist marketing in the last few years.
More and more Russian tourists choose Italy as their destination for short-term holidays or week-end trips. This tendency should be supported by issuing more multiple or long period visas which also encourage last minute trips.
L’ENIT views Russian tourists as being demanding: they mostly chose three or four stars hotels. At the same time they are quite attentive to the exact conformity of living conditions they pay for.
Russian tourists differ from the Europeans by the fact that there are very few Russians who organize their trip by themselves without any tourist agency assistance. It’s obvious that the main reason for that is problems of getting visa without assistance from tour operators. The other one is language barrier.
Why do Russians like Italy? Because every time they come here, they discover something special. The ones who love skiing can enjoy it even in summer in Cervinia (North Italy). Those who look for rehabilitation treatment enjoy thermal springs (some of them date back to the Ancient Romans period) at Tuscany, Veneto, Lazio, Sicily, Campania, Ischia Island. Russians come to Italy for gastronomical tours as well. In Abruzzo it’s possible to visit small family
83
farms which produce brigantaccio cheese which can’t be bought in any supermarket. It’s made of crude milk and seasoned in the absence of air.
Certainly Italy must be visited because of its history. There are cities which are part of UNESCO heritage such as Venice, Florence, Naples and there are also natural wonders such as the Amalfi Coast or the Dolomites.
2014 was named the year of tourism development between Russia and Italy. During that year many efforts were made aimed at increasing tourist flow in both directions. Italy is the first European country with whom has Russia set up this kind of relations. Russia in its turn became the first country partner of tourism for the Italian government.
One of the goals of the initiative was the introduction of the “Unknown Italy” where the majority of the attractions are far from beaten tourist tracks.
Due to its diversity Italy represents a true multisensory reality for Russian tourists. Besides traditional forms of tourism such as cultural, summer and winter tourism during the Year of tourism a large choice of innovative tourist programs were offered: rehabilitation, medical, sport, religious an events tourism.
During 2014 the main Italian tourist portals were translated in Russian, the Russian tourist services net “Russian Friendly“ was much expanded as well.
The Year of tourism both in Italy and in Russia offered a lot of cultural events in all over the country: photo exhibitions, cinema festivals, concerts, press tours.
84
So, it’s obvious that the tourist relations between the two countries have all the necessary conditions for mutual development.
85 V