Europe Sun & Beach 24.11.2015
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Konstantinos Mitsis, Greece: "In 2015, we hosted 40.000 Russian tourists"
How do you estimate the last summer season for your hotel chain?
The season was very good for us. In total, we hosted 400.000 international tourists in our hotels from all over the world.
You had very big contract on the Russian market before 2015. Which tour operator replaced Labirint (bankrupted in 2014)? What was the result?
From 2015, our main and only partner on the Russian market is Coral Travel. We had a good cooperation with them this year, they sent us 41.000 tourists. In 2014, we had more than 80.000 Russians in our hotels, so it is almost 50% decrease. Although, it was rather predictable, the situation on the Russian market is difficult.
Which markets have replaced for you the decreasing number of Russian tourists?
European markets mostly. We have an increase on the German market, the big increase of tourists from is Poland.
What is your forecast for summer season 2016?
We expect to be a very busy season in Greece.
What is your plan for 2016 for the Russian market?
Again we will cooperate with Coral Travel, we have a commitment contract for 40.000 clients.
As we see, your chain prefers to work on commitment basis. Do you follow the same strategy on all the markets?
Yes. We work mostly on commitment basis.
On your web site you also have online-booking. How many booking in percentage in general number of tourists come to you through this system?
Actually, not many. Since we work with tour operators on commitment basis, we do not have many rooms to sell to individual clients. In case we have, we sell them through our web page MitsisHotels.com, or through Booking.com or Expedia. But very few.
Previously the promotion of Mitsis Hotels on the Russian market was organized by the tour operators you were cooperating. Do you plan to keep the same strategy or to start promoting your hotels on your own?
We have the same strategy on all the markets, and we will follow it in 2016 as well.
You are very powerful person in Greece. What do you think Greece should do to increase the number of Russian tourists?
Russia faces economic crisis. So we have to wait, situation will be better.
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