"We are going in the elevator without breathing"

In the north, the first case of coronavirus. The Chinese here is the basis of tourist flow

Pray for the health of a Chinese student hospitalized with suspicion of coronavirus, called the head of Karelia Arthur Parfenchikov. Given the state of republican health care, treatment with fasting and prayer can become a panacea not only from the Chinese virus. However, while the patient’s life, according to the Karelian Ministry of Health, does not threaten: he was determined in the isolation center according to the current regulations, only fevers of the disease are only fever. Materials for analysis are sent to Moscow - there are no tests in the Republic of tests to determine the coronavirus. In total, 625 students from China study at Petrozavodsk University and Conservatory.

In Murmansk, much more panic refused a group of Chinese tourists to return to the Celestial Empire - on the morning of February 1, 23 Chinese tourists did not appear at the airport for registering in Vnukovo. The Chinese previously often missed return flights: the main object of their interest in the Arctic is Teriberk, from which it is difficult to get out when a blizzard begins. But they have not yet seen such a mass failure at the Murmansk airport. On the eve of the weather raged in the region, dozens of tourist buses got on the Teriberi highway in a seven -hour ned, so the reason for being late can be banal. The road was opened only a few hours after the departure of the Moscow side.

Nevertheless, another option is not excluded,

Indeed, in neighboring Finland, Chinese tourists massively began to apply for a visa extension. Thus, they are trying to wait out the epidemic in relatively safe Europe.

Moreover, the Chinese authorities extended the vacation to people - for the same purpose. However, it will not work to lengthen the action of the Schengen visa due to coronavirus: the official representatives of the Finnish Foreign Ministry already recalled that the epidemic is not included in the list of force majeure or humanitarian circumstances.

In Finland itself, as in other northern countries, the seasonal influx of Chinese is concerned: at the Russian Saariselka ski resort, the first confirmed case of coronavirus has been officially registered with Russians, 32-year-old tourist from Uzhin. This was stated by the head of the Health Security Department, Professor Mika Salminen. According to Yle, the woman herself went to the hospital with the symptoms of influenza and is now in the Central Hospital of Rovaniemi. Under the supervision of another 24 citizens of China, who identified suspicions of coronavirus.

Now Finnair and SAS are suspended flights to China, and in Lapland, where the percentage of Chinese visitors reached the season 27-30, a tourist decline is expected.

According to Barents Observer, 45 groups have already canceled races.

The northern countries, like the Russian Arctic, every winter is accepted by thousands of guests from the PRC. The Chinese of different wealth go for exotic and northern lights. In Norway and Finland - those that are more advanced to Murmansk - more victorious. The difference between flows is also that the Chinese basically come to Northern Europe individually - in pairs, families, one. In Russia, group tourism is developed. Another question is that it is far from always civilized and transparent: groups are often formed by Chinese travel agencies that do not pay taxes in Russia and are not always responsible for the quality of organization of the tour and the safety of their customers. Counterparties are often “wild” Russian guides, hence a huge number of auto -missiles and logistics failures. However, the epidemic will hit both small private traders and large firms.

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In Murmansk, tour operators expect a 80 percent fall of tourist flow, but so far far away. Flights from Moscow are still full of natives of Asia. A couple of days ago, in one of the major Murmansk hotels, doctors were seen in special protection, which caused some panic. As it turned out, the brigade was hospitalized by four Chinese, but in the future they were not discovered coronavirus.

The government of the region sent warnings to the hotels - as a result, it reached the ridiculous: the administrator of one of them called an ambulance, reading the name of the city of Wuan in the passports of tourists. The doctors did not find any diseases in patients, and the girls came, as it turned out, not from Ujan at all - the city was indicated as a place of birth. Another tourist was hospitalized in Olenegorsk Murmansk region - the disease turned out to be ordinary flu.

“I just left the hotel, a huge line for settlement, a 20 Chinese people, with children and without children,” says Ksenia Bukshina, leading manager of the Murmansk travel agency. - They certainly never became less, but it is clear that these are tourists who bought tickets long before the current events. The first days I am watching that the staff at the reception works in masks, before this was not there.

Ksenia calls the official ban on sending tourists to China the long -awaited: he allowed the Russians who were going to the Celestial Empire without paying penalties without paying penalties. People expressed the desire to cancel the reservation as soon as the epidemic began, but before the official ban would have to pay for a penalty, now at least this problem is solved.

“We don’t have panic,” says Ksenia. Her office is located right in a large hotel. - Our clients, however, say that they rise in an elevator with the Chinese, not breathing. But this is still a joke.