Number of Russians travelling to Finland on rise

The number of Russian tourists travelling to Finland increased significantly during the recent period.

More than 4,000 visa applications are being submitted to the Finnish mission in St Petersburg alone everyday, national broadcaster Yle reported quoting diplomatic mission.

The average processing period of the applications have delayed for months due to the rush of the applications.

About 50,000 visa applications remained pending for decisions at the Consulate General in St Petersburg.

"It's been a huge change, no doubt, but it was expected. Now the problem is that there is a month-long waiting period, as our resources can't keep up with the workload," Kari Lehtonen, the head of Finland's visa unit in St Petersburg told Yle.

The consulate estimates that St Petersburg area residents alone will submit half a million applications for a visa this year. This means that the slump in Russian tourism to Finland might be a thing of the past, as this year has already charted as many visitors as those that crossed the border in all of 2015, said the report.

The city of Vyborg has also seen a boon in visa applications, but other major Russian cities located close to Finland, like Petrozavodsk and Murmansk, haven't recorded a similar increase, the yle report added.