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Meanwhile, the majority of Austrian skiing resorts popular with Russians, especially those in Tyrol and Salzburgenland, are concerned about the decrease of tourist flow from Russia. ‘It is a serious problem for all Tourist Boards’, said Miriam Pichler, representative of Zaalbach-Hinterglemm Tourist Board. Karmen Fender, Press Secretary of Zelden Tourist Board agrees: ‘for us Russian travel market is very important. We will try to resolve the visa problem’. However, the Austrian party has not decided what measures to take in the current situation. One of the variants is to continue neg
otiations with the Austrian Embassy in Moscow having united with other resorts to increase effectiveness.
However, some Austrian Tourist Boards show less enthusiasm towards such an initiative. Bettina Haas, Marketing Specialist of Tyrol Tourist Board, said to a BANKO correspondent: ‘in perspective Russian travel market is very attractive for us but, firstly, there are problems with visas every year, secondly, I believe that the resolution of the problem should be negotiated by Russian tour operating companies and the Austrian Embassy in Moscow. According to Hass, Tyrol authorities do not want to intervene due to the amount of Russian tourists at their resorts – approximately 1%. Nevertheless, such figures do not surprise Russian travel market experts: ‘there are hundreds of resorts in Tyrol and only a few of them are popular with Russian tourists’, explained Evgenyi Sudbin, General Director Deputy of Acent Travel.
