A record number of visas are being issued by Finnish consulates.
A record number of visas will be issued to Russian tourists this year Finland. Reports include a figure of 1 million proposed visas. Neighbouring Norway is behind Suomi’s high performance, but it has a lot of movement but few achievements to date. Opened just three months ago, on February 11 of this year, a new visa center for Finns in Finland. St. PetersburgThe company, which is actually the largest in the world, has already increased the throughput and processing volume of applications by 60%.
Finnish consular officers assure that in the presence of 83 counters, the submission time is limited to a quarter of an hour, and the distribution of applicants is carried out electronically. All procedures in the new visa center are carried out by VFS Global, a company registered in India, which also serves Russian diplomatic missions in the UK. The company is a subsidiary of the Swiss Kuoni Group. It is worth noting that at first, the tourist leadership of Finland hosted the proposal of its own Ministry of Foreign Affairs, when he proposed to introduce a contract service system in visa centers. Tours have risen in price, at the same time, everyone began to discuss whether it is not dangerous to entrust a non-governmental company with access to applicants’ passports. However, the figures were more than eloquent: since the beginning of 2011, the Consulate of Finland has already issued about 250 thousand visas, with 95% of multiple entries. With the onset of April, it became clear that the volume of applications increased by 160% compared to the same period in 2010. However, the permitting staff admitted that they were not good at issuing visas. “Due to the sharp increase in tourist arrivals, paperwork takes longer. Spring is traditionally a busy time of year, said Erka Mikkonen, director of public relations at the Finnish Consulate in St. Petersburg. Among the factors that provided increased attention to Finland, experts call the opening of a new visa center, the Allegro train and a new ferry crossing connecting St. Petersburg and Helsinki.
The successes of Finland “infected” neighboring Norway, which hastened to catch up and attract the Russian tourist. In 2010, Norwegian consulates processed 126,000 applications from Russian citizens, issuing a positive decision in 94% of cases. According to the leaders of the local tourism industry, the Consulate General of Norway in Murmansk is doing a tremendous job, using all its potential and infrastructure. However, if Norway wants to catch up with Finland, it needs to dramatically increase budget allocations in this direction. While working in Murmansk, the Norwegian consulate is seriously puzzled by the idea, together with the Consulate of Finland, to hire a third-party company that will process applications and issue visas.
Russian tour operators also confirm the increased interest in the northern “neighbors”. So, as the head of the department of Finland and Scandinavia of the travel company told the correspondent of the information group TURPROMPAC GroupElena Kharkova, this year there is a noticeably more active demand for tours to Finland. Norway compared to the same period last year. “On average, demand increased by at least 10%. Among the trends of this season, it is possible to note a good depth of reservations, applications are received by the end of August, the source explained. A twofold increase in the number of tourists compared to last year was recorded in theAsent Travel.? Sales of summer tours this year started in January and held steady until the end of April with a depth of 2 to 5 months. After a seasonal failure during the May holidays, sales resumed, but for closer races - within one to two months, said Alexei Petrov, deputy director for development of the travel company Asent-Travel.