Tourists from Russia Bolstering Spa Sector
Estonian spas are recovering from a period of low visitors and some are currently at or near capacity. The growth is being propelled mainly by Russian Federation tourists.
The number of visitors from traditional markets such as Finland and Sweden is up 3 to 5 percent while guests from Russia are visiting Estonian spas 10 percent more than last year, ETV reported.
"The Estonian Spa Association with the support of Enterprise Estonia has carried out very large-scale market actions in both the Moscow and St. Petersburg market. Russians have a good image of Estonia as a tourist destination," said Estonian Spa Association board member Jaan Ratnik on ETV.
A good example is the Fra Mare Thalasso Spa in Haapsalu, which drew 263 people from Russia in the first three quarters of last year. The respective figure for 2011 is 439 or 40 percent more.
The number of Finns is somewhat down, but the spa is not seeing it as problematic.
"We are very happy because they have found their way to far-off Haapsalu and the main plan that they buy is the curative mud package," said Fra Mare Thalasso Spa board member Maret Sukles, speaking on ETV.
Curative mud is a century-old draw to the western resort town.
"[The Russians] are very aware of it and have read much about it. Most have consulted with their doctors and that's the trump they come here for. And of course they buy everything else in great quantity, they use many of the procedures we offer," said Sukles.
The director of the Haapsalu Spa Hotell Laine, Irene Väli, told ETV her experience was similar. "Clients are up 11 percent overall, and the number of bed-days is up 17 percent. We can be satisfied with this year," said Väli.
Customers from Russia are also up at Laine. Finns are still easily the top country of origin, followed by Estonians, but proprietors say it will probably take time for domestic tourism to recover.
"We can't say there has been a big breakthrough toward growth in domestic tourism, which took a hard hit in the early years of the crisis," said Ratnik of the Spa Association.
Ratnik says his target is for total revenue from the sector to cross the symbolic one billion kroon line - about 64 million euros in the new currency.
Kristopher Rikken
