Given the large presence of Russian tourists and with the aim of improving care for them, the Mossos d'Esquadra, the Catalan police force and the Municipal Police of various cities such as Lloret de Mar They receive Russian classes to have basic notions of the language.
Catalonia concentrates 61% of Russian tourism in Spain. Saying that the number of Russian tourists in Spain will reach a record figure this summer has almost ceased to be news. If last year 1.200.000 arrived, this year the figure is expected to reach a million and a half, but they are still not quantitatively as important as the English, French or Germans. Many of them choose Costa Brava as a preferred destination.
El Catalan tourism sector -which expects to receive a million of these Slavic visitors- already treats Russia as a 'consolidated' market. Even so, they do not lower their guard neither with the promotion, nor with the attention to the russian customer, nor with the training of professionals in the sector.
This training consists of outlining the profile of a Russian tourist – for example, it is explained to the agents that this visitor usually carries a lot of cash – and giving some basic notions of the language. Thus, they are taught to say hello in Russian, to say thank you and to use the usual vocabulary with which they can be found, such as “theft”, “loss”, “medical center”, etc.
