Falling of ruble greatly affects the purchasing power of Russians. It is expected that this year by 100 thousand less Russian tourists will come to the Czech Republic, reports ee24.com citing radio.cz. People from China and the Asian tigers (South Korea, Taiwan and others), on the contrary, will visit the Czech Republic more often.
Jaromir Beranek, an analyst in the tourism sector, believes that in 2014 the Czech Republic will miss 100 thousand tourists from Russia, as the tours went up in price by 25%. This is not such a big decline, given that in 2012 the country was visited by 760 thousand Russians. Much more severe downturn is expected in tourist flow from Ukraine: from an annual 140 thousand it will immediately fall by 30%.
The Chinese, the Taiwanese and citizens of other countries in the region began to come more often to the Czech Republic, but they stay in the country only for 2-3 days, while the Russian-speaking tourists usually choose the Czech Republic as the main destination of their trips.
We have already mentioned that some resorts in Karlovy Vary Region are preparing for the outflow of Russians due to the depreciation of the ruble. Property in the Czech Republic, however, continues to be in demand. Lyudmila Hnatova, director of REALITY FUTURE Mariánské Lázně, told ee24.com that she noticed the increase in Russians' interest in real estate in the resorts of the Czech Republic. According to the expert, the demand will remain high in the future.