It’s widely known that Russian tourism has considerably risen up during the last years in the city of Barcelona, as well as in the rest of the Spanish coast. Actually, Barcelona already receives over 7.5 million Russian tourists per year. Moreover, among the several nationalities that visit Barcelona, Russians are precisely the ones that spend more money with an average of 125 euros per day.
“Among all the tourists visiting Barcelona, Russians are the ones that spend more money”
Anyway, there’s another phenomenon going on lately concerning all those Russians who decide to actually move to Barcelona. Attracted by the weather, culture, gastronomy and way of life they decide to quit their jobs in Russia and move to this Mediterranean paradise.
¿How are these Russians?
The profile of this new form of immigration driven by non-economic reasons, is quite diverse: young college graduates, middle-aged wealthy couples with flourishing business and guaranteed income in their country, but eager to change their lives; or young couples who want their children to be raised as Europeans. Many of them come from major Russian capitals like Moscow or St. Petersburg, but also from Kazan and Siberia.
¿Where do they establish their homes?
When choosing the destination to settle their home they all want to live by the sea. The distribution of Russians living in Spain leaves no doubt, with a high concentration on the coast, from Andalusia to Catalonia. Alicante, for example, is the Spanish province that hosts more Russian citizens with almost 10.000 of them.
Barcelona is one of the other favorite destinations. This city is synonymous of prestige, modernity and quality of life among many Russians. That’s why many wealthy families look for luxury real estate for sale in Barcelona willing to move their lives to this exclusive and Mediterranean city. Nowadays, there are about 9.000 registered Russians living in Catalonia.
“Barcelona is seen as the most prestigious and exclusive destination in Spain”
The Costa Brava and the Costa Daurada also emerge as places to set their residences, which explains, for example, the increase in real estate transactions held by Russians in towns along the Catalan coast.
New exclusive services for Russians
All this phenomenon has also generated new business opportunities that Russians that have been settled for some years in places like Salou or Lloret de Mar want to take advantage of. This way, many services and businesses have risen targeted especially to Russians; real estate agencies, tourism services, language schools and so on.
There are other agencies that offer help on all the administrative duties of moving to Barcelona, like arranging visas. Actually, even if the EU and Russia where negotiating for visa liberalization in order to promote tourism, this negotiations were suspended a year ago. We will have to wait to see how this matter evolves.
