ATOR: the tourists flow from Russia to France may return to pre-crisis levels in 2017

“The tour operators report about twice increasing in demand for tours to France for May dates, as well as an increasing of the number of bookings for the summer months”, - said the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR). "According to the leading tour operators of the direction, the booking of tours to France continues to grow against the background of strengthening of the Ruble exchange rate. This activity is noticeable from the middle of February. Group and individual tours are booking; Paris-Disneyland and holiday on the Cote d'Azur are popular now. Some companies noted a doubled growth in demand against the same period of the last year", - stressed in ATOR. The Russian tourists are interested not only in Paris: the companies note the growth of sales of excursion tours to the regions of France and health programs at the resorts - Saint-Malo, Biarritz and Evian. At present time the depth of bookings of tours to France reaches up to November 2017. For the beach holidays in summer, Russians actively book accommodation in villas and apartments at the Cote d'Azur, both economical and luxury options. The Director of Atout France in Russia and CIS countries Inessa Korotkova said, that the period from the end of 2016 till 2017 was very successful for the direction. "We note an increase of the number of direct bookings, as well as the revival of the tour operator's market. According to the French Consulate in Moscow, the number of issued visas has increased by 90% in February 2017 against the same period in 2016", - she informed. According to forecasts of Atout France, if such trend continues, in 2017 the Russian market may return to the pre-crisis figures of 2013, when France was visited by 800 thousand Russian tourists. In 2016 the tourist flow from Russia to France amounted more than 600 thousand people.