Goan hoteliers, taxi drivers & guides better soon start taking lessons in Russian languages. In a first, Russian tourists arriving in Goa have outnumbered British holidayers, visiting this famous beach destination in 2011-12.

As per Goa Economic Survey tabled during the ongoing state legislative assembly session, a total of 1,33,683 Russians arrived in the coastal state as against 1,17,683 British tourists during 2011-12.

The figures further shows that the number of Russians have increased while that of Britishers has decreased compared to the year earlier and this has happened for the first time in the history of Goa.

The Russians have nearly doubled in number from 57,623 last year while there was slowdown in tourism arrival from the UK and the numbers went down from 1.54 lakh to 1.17 lakh. Germany was the third country with arrivals of 30,234 last year.

The Finnish and French ranked fourth and fifth on the list. Goa annually attracts 24 lakh tourists, of which four lakhs are international guests.