Tatra Mountains expecting a tough season

This year Tatra Mountains are expecting one of the most difficult winter seasons in the last years. "We record up to a 95 percent drop in Russians," said for the economic daily Hospodárske noviny Mark Blitshteyn, travel agent for Pilgrimtour agency concentrating on Russian tourists. To the dramatic slump of Russian and Ukrainian tourists a powerful new rival was added - the Alps. Also the Austrians are dealing with the issue, of who is going to replace the wealthy Russian tourists, and at the same time they are looking to attract the Slovak tourists. "We must do everything that we can so that Slovaks will be spending vacations at home and not in Austria," says the director of the Junior Hotel Jasná Radoslav Chovančík. The situation should change also with the new airline connections between Poprad and London, as well as the connection with the Latvian capital Riga. "The clientele of the Baltic and Nordic countries is getting interested in tourism in Slovakia. In the first half of 2014 about 22% more Latvians came to us than in the same period last year," claims the State Secretary of the Transport ministry, František Palko. Similarly, the ministry reported an increase in the number of tourists from Lithuania.