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Russia

Traffic moving smoothly at border

Traffic at crossing points on Finland's south-eastern border has shot up in recent days with an influx of Russia tourists arriving to spend their New Year holidays here. As many as 400,000 seasonal visitors from Russia are expected, up by 10 percent from the same time last year.

Autojono Nuijamaalla.
Image: Yle

Finnish Tourist Board regional chief Arto Asikainen considers the growth in tourism from Russia spectacular.

"The results are really good when you're dealing with such large figures. A ten percent annual increase is an extremely splendid result," says Asikainen.

Speaking to Yle on Wednesday, Asikainen added that sales of trips to Finland in Russia and border formalities have been going well. However, he still sees room for even more growth.

"Seventy percent of Russians have never been abroad and facilities for tourists in Finland are not full."

In recent years, Russians have made around three million visits to Finland annually, including business trips. In 2011 Russian visitors spent 860 million euros in Finland. Totals for last year are expected to top one billion.