Baltic States – CIS, Estonia, Tourism, Transport

The company said that the demand for its Eurolines Lux Express, that serves St. Petersburg-Tallinn line, has grown significantly and that it will offer 60 percent more seating capacity than at regular season.

According to Eurolines, the number of Russian tourists visiting Tallinn for Christmas and the New Year's Eve has been growing constantly, with 2007 being the only setback in connection with the Bronze Soldier incident.

"At the time when the economic crisis has affected travel in many markets, it is nice to see that people in St. Petersburg are increasingly interested in spending Christmas and New Year in Tallinn," said Hannes Saarpuu, the Chairman of Eurolines Lux Express.

Saarpuu estimated that the 5,000 passengers will spend approximately 20 million kroons into the local tourist industry during the holiday season.

At the beginning of 2010, Eurolines plans to replace most of its fleet of buses buses on St. Petersburg route.

The total investment into the buses that will serve the St. Petersburg line is more than 22 million kroons.

Eurolines is the biggest operator of international express coach routes in the Baltic region and offers the most frequent service within the Baltic countries and to Russia and European countries. Eurolines Baltic operates Standard, Lux Express and Lux Express Special coach services and offers hotel packages, visas, car rental, insurance, ferry tickets, holiday trips and other travel services.

The company was established in 1993. In the last 18 months, Eurolines Baltic invested more than 50 million kroons for purchasing new coaches. The company's fleet comprised almost 50 modern tourist coaches.