"We haven't got  an equivalent tourist exchange with Finland, and it can't be suitable for our country", - declared the deputy minister of culture  of Russia Alla Manilova following the results of the first day of  XIV Russian-Finnish cultural forum which was opened in Velikiy Novgorod,on the 23-rd of september. As reports REGNUM news agency, the deputy minister declared that she doesn't consider absolute number of tourists to be correct because of the differences in calculation techniques (Rosstat, for example, doesn't include business tourism in it's reports).

"Despite the lack of stable correct numbers, we can denote that proportions of inbound and domestic tourism between Russia and Europe (Finland in particular) are irregular and this fact can't be suitable for us ", -told A.Manilova. She emphasized the fact that its normal for  European tourists of  developed countries to have "1:1:4" proportion, where "1:1..." is for inbound and domestic tourism (this ratio has to be equal), and "...:4" is for internal tourism (number of  citizens traveling within the country), which has to be 4 times higher. 

" Its too far for us to go. It is necessary to make more efforts", - told the deputy minister of culture of  Russian Federation. According to her words, Finland provides vivid choice of offerings regarding tourism. "And to get  "1:1.." proportion for Finish tourist in Russia it is necessary for Finns to know that St. Petersburg is not the only remarkable city in our country", - noted Manilova.

In her opinion, places which are connected with Finno-Ugric culture would be very interesting for Finnish tourists - there are many of them in Russia, and they are widespread  within big territory.

The secretary of state of the Ministry of Education and culture of Finland Yarmo Linden declared that "there are all premises for increasing of Finnish tourism into Russia". "It is necessary to tell more about Russian cities - for example, about Petrozavodsk and other regions where Finno-Ugra people  live", - noted he. Now, according to Linden,Russia receives for about 1,5 million visas a year from Finland and Finland from Russia - 300-400 thousands.