The Colourful Russian Middle Class : Case: The winter holidays visitors in Lahti city
Saarela, Anna (2011)
Saarela, Anna
Kymenlaakson ammattikorkeakoulu
2011
All rights reserved
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-201105198752
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-201105198752
Tiivistelmä
From the time the Soviet-Union collapsed, the Russian middle class has been a very popular subject for researchers because of its multi-complexity and its natural transformation process.
The aim of the first part of the thesis is to give an informative view of Russia’s colourful middle class, by explaining to readers what the middle class has gone through during the past two decades and where it stands now. Later will follow an analysis and examples about different strata (classes, groups) and their lifestyles; how they live, what their values are and where they prefer to invest their money.
The case study was made in cooperation with three hotels located in the centre of Lahti city. The aim of the study was to find out how Russian visitors who come to Finland in the period of their winter holidays, perceive the service in Finland and what they feel about the service in the Russian language while visiting Finland. The results show that Russians perceive the service in Finland to be at either a high or a medium level. In general, Russian customers expressed their satisfaction to the service. It was noticed that Finnish service providers know little about their clients, which needs to be changed. Russia is a large country that will provide enough customers in the near future, but looking ten or twenty years ahead, it becomes clear that Finland needs to invest more in its tourism strategy by improving the language skills and other Russia-related knowledge in order to serve their clients well.
The aim of the first part of the thesis is to give an informative view of Russia’s colourful middle class, by explaining to readers what the middle class has gone through during the past two decades and where it stands now. Later will follow an analysis and examples about different strata (classes, groups) and their lifestyles; how they live, what their values are and where they prefer to invest their money.
The case study was made in cooperation with three hotels located in the centre of Lahti city. The aim of the study was to find out how Russian visitors who come to Finland in the period of their winter holidays, perceive the service in Finland and what they feel about the service in the Russian language while visiting Finland. The results show that Russians perceive the service in Finland to be at either a high or a medium level. In general, Russian customers expressed their satisfaction to the service. It was noticed that Finnish service providers know little about their clients, which needs to be changed. Russia is a large country that will provide enough customers in the near future, but looking ten or twenty years ahead, it becomes clear that Finland needs to invest more in its tourism strategy by improving the language skills and other Russia-related knowledge in order to serve their clients well.