Baltic States – CIS, Estonia, Tourism

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Helen Rits said that the number of visa applications usually grows in summer but Russians are especially interested in travelling to Estonia at the end of the year for holidays.

“The foreign ministry has sent and will send extra forces to its Russian representations for November and December when the number of visa applications is bigger than usual to make sure the applications of all people could be handled in time and quickly,” said Rits, adding that the ministry will send a total of 15 extra consuls and 27 visa information staff to its Russian representations. Estonia’s representations in Russia have received 57,768 visa applications in the first nine month of this year.

Tallinn’s entrepreneurship development board tourism department senior specialist Irina Svidlov said that in nine months, as many Russians have visited Tallinn than during the whole of 2009 and a record amount of guests from Russia are expected for Christmas and New Year’s.

Many hotels in Tallinn have a special Russian-language programme for Russian tourists on New Year’s Eve and for example Radisson Blu Hotel Olümpia, both of Tallink Grupp’s hotels in Tallinn, Swiss.