Skift Take
Russian tourism is a mix of low end beach+shopping and very high end luxury, and countries who have traditionally not paid much attention to the market are increasingly going to, especially Western Europe.
Attracting Chinese tourists has become amongst the biggest battle cries in all of travel globally, especially all over Europe. But a somewhat ignored second are the Russian outbound tourists, and they're having a big effect on the recovery of European tourism economy, according to latest Q3 2013 numbers from European Travel Commission.
As European tourism experienced a 5 percent year-to-date growth, well above Europe's long-term trend and close to growth in world’s fastest growing regions, travel demand from Russia persists at high growth levels, turning it into a consistent source of visitors for a growing number of European destinations.
These numbers are helping offset
