The economic crisis has badly affected the entertainment and tourism sectors, writes Latvia’s Russian-language newspaper Chas. It carried out a questionnaire among tourism companies asking for a review of the year in the tourism sector, what new services they are offering and their plans for the future. Airtour’s executive director, Sergey Trenin, says that the company plans to develop package tours to Australia, Bali and the Maldives. Kaspars Ance, director of the Averoja agency, says that his number of clients has grown by 30 percent in 2008 compared to the previous year. Alida Turs President Arno Ter-Saakov says that despite the financial crisis the number of outbound tourists has grown by 19 percent in 2008. Genadiy Gondelman of Begonija says that next year his company’s clients will be offered hotel and air tickets bookings online, while the agency Bosa Travel plans to provide exotic trips for locals who have already visited lots of countries and would like just to relax somewhere new for a while. Marina Jakobsone-Andersons, director of Remaco, says that this year was rather successful for the company and next year clients will be offered ready-made trips to Istanbul, to attend the flower show in Holland and to go diving in the Maldives.

 

Chas, 2008-12-04