Since the collapse of Soviet Union in 1991, Russia has experienced outstanding economic growth and in recent years is one of the fastest growing outbound travel markets in the world. The main drivers for continuous growth have been freedom to travel abroad and the increasing disposable income (ETC, UNWTO, 2009, Research Institute, 2011). In 2007 Russia was ranked the ninth biggest outbound travel market in the world in terms of expenditure when Russians took 34.3 million outbound trips and spent a total of US$ 22.3 billion, and these numbers are expected to keep growing (ECT, UNWTO, 2009).
Destinations world-wide are competing to attract tourists originating from Russia as they are going against the general trends of travel – the length of their holidays is increasing and expenditure is growing (TRDN, 2010). It is also common for families to travel together, including grandparents; therefore already high expenditure per person multiplies (Ferguson, 2011). …
