I love talking to travelers. This October, on the way from Athens to Moscow my flight mate was a man of about my age. During four-hour flight I found out that Maxim and his friends rented a small yacht in Kos harbour. The team travelled about three weeks from one Greek island to another, enjoying the sea, warm welcome of locals, and excellent food. Maxim described me his journey in all the details, although the most challenging part of the story was not about traveling in Greece, but about getting there. 

The summer season in Greece came to the end. It’s high time to speak about the result and make some conclusions. We have turned to Russian tour operators working on the destination. Almost all operators consider the season 2019 in Greece as rather successful. But the situation is different for mass market tour operators and those who works on requests only.

From January to September Russians made 14,18 million tourist trips abroad, which is 9,2% more than the same period a year earlier. Greece is on the fifth line of preferences with 561 thousand Russian tourists’ visits.

Thinking about number of Russian tourists annually visiting Greece, I was surprised that data of various sources differ so much. I analyzed statistics of Bank of Greece, Consulates of Greece in Russia, Russian Statistics Service, and Russian Border Service.

In the autumn the demand for European destinations such as Greece, Italy and Bulgaria has grown. The demand for autumn holidays in 2019 increased by 26% compared to last year.

Several tour operators in Russia noted the growth of interest to early booking to Greece. Thus Alexander Tsandekidi Mouzenidis Travel TO CEO reported about 700 persons booked for summer season 2020. And that is 20 times more than the same period of the last year. Each year more tourists are booking beforehand to avoid currency, hotel and flight cost changes.

More and more Russian travelers are choosing high-level hotels for the autumn season. This is the conclusion made by the experts of Tez Tour after analysis of bookings on more than 30 destinations for dates from September to mid-October 2019. 

In January-June 2019, citizens of the Russian Federation made 21 212 095 trips abroad. This is 6.67% more than in the same period of the last year. Turkey became the leader of outbound tourism, Italy is growing rapidly and tourist flow to Thailand has slightly decreased.

2019 summer statistic looks not optimistic for Greece, at least from Russia. According to Heraklion airport information, the number of tourists’ arrivals is 20% lower than during the same period in 2018.  Anex Tour has planned less charters to Crete from Moscow from five to three weekly, having the same two flights from Moscow to Rhodes. But tour operator has increased the number of seats on the regular flights base. Mouzenidis Travel cancelled Moscow – Chania charter in the very beginning of the season and decreased the number of flights on route Moscow — Heraklion from twice a day to one, although instead of Airbus A319 and Boeing 737 tourists fly on Airbus A320. Coral Travel had to cancel one charter on the route Moscow-Heraklion on Fridays from 19/07/19. Earlier this operator has also cancelled flights on Moscow – Chania, Samara — Heraklion, S-Petersburg — Rhodes and Rostov-on-Don — Rhodes programs. PR director of the company Marina Makarkova explained that the programs were not loaded well. 

Next week seven-day tour packages to the island of Rhodes with departures from Moscow are sold at prices from 28 thousand Rubles (396 Euros) for two persons. It is cheaper than at the beginning of July, when prices started from 32 thousand Rubles (452 Euros). Thus, the previous forecasts of market participants on activation of demand closer to August are not yet justified. 

Interest for Crete among Russians this year is obviously weaker than in the past: the tourist flow shows a negative trend since spring. In June, despite the expectations of tour operators, the picture did not change: for the first month of summer, 54 thousand tourists from Russia came to the Greek island – it is almost 20% less than in 2018. This is evidenced by the official statistics of the airport of Heraklion. 

Already at the height of the current season Mouzenidis Travel tour operator opened the early booking of tours to Greece for the summer of 2020. Discounts for accommodation in club hotels of the chain Bomo now reach 40%. According to the press service of Mouzenidis Travel, the early booking of tours to Greece for the 2020 season, which started on July 8, will be held until March 31, 2020 in 4 stages. 

The flight program of Coral Travel – Moscow/Heraklion - is optimized: one of the five flight chains is removed (from July 19 to October 11) on Fridays. This was reported by a representative of the tour operator. “The reason is insufficient loading of boards.

Coral Travel canceled the flight program to Rhodes from St. Petersburg From 05.07.2019 (the company had previously canceled flights from Rostov-on-Don). According to travel agents, tourists are not satisfied with the proposed alternatives - departures from Moscow or only ground service without air ticket compensation. The tour operator explained the cancellation of flights by low loading of boards. 

Russian tourist flow to Greece this year continues to decline. So, in May, in Heraklion arrived 21% less the Russians than a year earlier – only 32 thousand people. This information was provided by the official statistics of the airport. 

Tour operator Coral Travel (Odeon) is the leader of the Rhodes destination this year in Russia. Five Russian cities with more than million population were chosen for charter program to Diagoras airport (Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Ekaterinburg, Rostov-on-Don and Krasnodar). As travel agents say, with early booking discounts, start of the program was booked well. All the flight programs are being fulfilled now.

Russian tourists spent 6 million Euros in Greece in January-March 2019, which is almost 70% more than during the same period last year, the portal Argophilia reports. "According to the Bank of Greece, for the first quarter of 2019, the banks’ revenues amounted to 212 million (plus 40%), this is due to increased spending of travelers.

Tours to Chania (Crete), formed on Ural Airlines flights, have disappeared from the Coral Travel online booking system. Retail partners of the tour operator reported about this on June 5. Marina Makarkova, the head of public relations department at Coral Travel, confirmed: the program was canceled due to insufficient loading. 

Since June 1, 2019,  Ellinair operates flights to Thessaloniki twice a week on Airbus A320 (180 passengers) or on Airbus A319 (144 passengers) from international airport Koltzovo in Ekaterinburg. Departure from Koltzovo is planned at 06:35 on Saturday and at 06:00 on Wednesday. Flight duration equals 4 hours and 50 minutes. 

On 28-th of May, 2019, Coral Travel has started the charter program to Greek island Rhodes from Rostov-on-Don (RTD: canceled in June 2019). The program is carried out by Royal Flight on B-737 once a week from 28.05.2019 till 01.10.2019. The first flight was fully completed. There was the group of tour managers for fam trip onboard. Odeon welcomes this trip in Rhodes. 

29/05/2019 the charter program of Ellin Air to Saloniki was rebirthed. B-737-300 works on this route. This program is ordered by TO Mouzenidis Travel and the group of tour managers also used the first flight to destination for acquaintance with the region as there are many rather popular resorts on the coast line of the Aegean sea. More over this part of Greece is very rich with historical and nature places of interest.