Citibank: Research of Russian middle-class spending behavior abroad

Economic recovery, appreciation of the Ruble and growth of consumer incomes allow Russians traveling abroad more often. According to official sources, in 2007 more than 9 million Russian citizens visited foreign countries, mainly as tourists. In line with increasing frequency of traveling (it should be noted that many Russians have foreign voyages 2-3 times a year or even oftener), the market sees growing requirements for quality services that Russians expect to get during their foreign vacations and as a result larger sums of money they spend abroad.

There are several important changes affecting both the geography of traveling and its contents - Russians do more individual tours, tours including shopping, they more often visit Western Europe and exotic countries, etc. The new quality of Russian tourism leads to increasing importance of banking services provided to domestic clients in foreign countries; first of all, that concerns banking credit and debit cards that serve as the main means of payments in the course of overseas travel tours.

Today, banking cards of the world leading payments systems are used by the vast majority of Russian travelers who fully realized their advantages. In this article prepared by Citibank specialists in cooperation with a market research agency IRG, we summarized the most interesting facts and figures on how Russians use banking cards during their overseas trips. The analysis is based on the data for randomly selected 20,000 Russian credit and debit cards users" transactions made at foreign destinations in 2007 and also on the data provided by Kuda.ru.

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Double-Digit Market Growth Forecasted for Russian Security Market Through 2012

The third installment of SIA"s BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) series, SIA"s Russia Security Market Report is an in-depth study of the dynamic Russian market for electronic security. It is the first study to define and quantify this rapidly growing market, estimated at US$1.1billion (1% of GDP) in 2006. 2007 estimates reveal growth of 19% over this to total US$1.3 billion.

This report closely examines Russian markets for electronic security including access control, video surveillance, intrusion and fire detection and alarms, and perimeter control. Profiles of top vertical markets and top security players are included. Additionally, the Russian economic environment and regulations for foreign direct investment are also discussed. This report serves as a guidebook for security companies that want to open in this market.

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