Economics professor comments on tourism in Estonia

04.12.2006
Professor Douglas K Peterson writes that Estonia has so many more opportunities to be successful in quick-developing sectors like tourism, shipping and IT. Hotels, restaurants and souvenir shops in Tallinn's Old Town are hoping to catch customers with low prices, not with an innovative or original approach. Tallinn could stress its stronger but lesser-known sides – its zoo, the Rocca al Mare nature trails, its churches. That way, the tourism industry could concentrate on different target groups and attract families as well as tourists who keep coming back. Estonia’s competitors are Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Albania, Slovenia and the Czech Republic, Peterson says. The advantages of Riga and Prague are low-cost flights. Tallinn’s advantage is Estonian Air and the availability of its Star Alliance partners.

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