“Almost 900,000 Russian tourists came to Greece in 2016, which is 30℅ more than a year ago”, - said Georgy Mavrommatis - the representative of the Greek National Tourist Association. "The overall growth of the tourist flow from Russia to Greece amounted 30% in comparison with 2015, we approached the volume of 900 thousand people", - G.Mavrommatis added at the conference "Spring-Summer'17", organized by Coral Travel and Sunmar tour operators.

Despite the returning of Turkey on the Russian tourism market and expected the opening of air traffic with Egypt, Greece in the summer season 2017 will be among the most sought-after holiday’s destinations for Russians. This point of view stated CEO of tour operator "Mouzenidis Travel" Alexander Tsandekidi.

More than 30 thousand Russians have already booked tours to Greece for the 2017 season in the tour operator "Mouzenidis Travel". Over 1,000 of them will spend holidays at the resorts of Athens and Pieria. It was said by CEO "Mouzenidis Travel" Alexander Tsandekidi on business meeting with travel agents.

“In January 2017 the volume of sales of tours to Greece rose by 35% against the same period og the last year. In particular, during the first month of this year the shares of early booking tours to Greek resorts has already bought by more than 30 thousand Russians”, - said the General director of "Mouzenidis Travel" Alexander Tsandekidi.

Market participants noted a significant intensification of demand for Greek Crete for the coming summer. Thus, according to TEZ Tour and ANEX Tour, pre-sale of trips to Crete in the mid of January increased two times against the same period of the last year. "Biblio Globus" and "Pegas Touristik" also noted the growth of early bookings, however, without giving specific figures.

“Greece has become one of the most popular destinations for summer holidays in Russia and Europe in 2016”, - said the Russian Association of Tour Operators (ATOR). "Demand for Greece has exceeded the accommodation capacity of the country - it has not enough number of hotels and rooms to accommodate all the visitors. The tour operators note, that with the high quality of the Greek tourist product the loyal visa policy (which allows Russians to get a long-term Schengen visa) provides the growth in demand for this destination. In 2016 the number of Russian tourists visiting Greece amounted about 900 thousand.

“Greece continues to simplify the visa regime for Russian citizens”, the Greek Tourism Minister Eleni Kundura reported at the Third International Tourism Exhibition in Athens. "In the case of active use of the first visa, which is usually issued for a period from three to six months, the next time the visa will be issued for a period from three to five years", she said.

“This year Greece has taken the leading position among the list of foreign destinations for the tourists from St. Petersburg, ahead of Bulgaria and Cyprus”, - said the director of the Northwest regional branch of the Russian Union of Travel Industry Ekaterina Shadskaya.

“S7” Airline will open direct regular flights from Moscow to the Greek island Kos in the summer schedule 2017”, - reported the press service of the company. The flights will be carried out from April 29, 2017 with a frequency of twice a week - on Thursdays and Saturdays. And from 29 May the frequency of flights will increase to three times a week – additionally on Mondays. Departure time of the flights from Moscow "Domodedovo" airport is 12:00, arriving Kos - 16:05 of local time. The return flight will depart at 17:00 and arrive Moscow at 20:55. The flights will be implemented by Airbus A320 aircraft.

“In January-August 2016 Greece has issued 456,000 visas to Russians, 90% of which – multi-entry visas for a period 3 - 5 years”, - told the Russian office Director of the Greek National Tourism Organisation Polycarp Evstafiu. "These figures indicate that there is a great potential for the future.

Greek hotelier Konstantinos Mitsis, the founder of one of the biggest hotel chains in Greece, passed away on Sunday, August 28, 2016. The funeral service hold on Tuesday, August 30, 2016, at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens. Konstantinos Mitsis buried in his hometown of Kryoneri, Ioannina.

Visa dialogue with the European Union has not yet been resumed although Russia is successfully working in this area with a number of EU countries, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Meshkov said on Tuesday. According to the Russian diplomat, a number of European Union countries, which are interested in receiving tourists from Russia, are taking "various efforts within the current European laws to encourage Russian tourists to visit those countries."

Ellinair airline in the spring-summer season 2016 will start regular flights from St. Petersburg to the Greek island of Zante (Zakynthos Town), according to press service of Pulkovo airport. Flights will be operated on Tuesdays and Saturdays, starting from May 31. In addition, the report says that from April 29, Ellinair started regular flights from St. Petersburg to Thessaloniki. During the spring-summer season, they are operated on Mondays and Fridays.

Greece may become the most popular foreign destination of Russian tourists this year, Head of the Federal Agency for Tourism (Rostourism) Oleg Safonov said on Wednesday. He was speaking at the Russian-Greek tourist forum. "It is difficult to forecast, but judging by the trends we see, I suppose, that Greece will be the country which is most visited by Russian tourists in 2016.

In the spring-summer season, Ellinair airline will operate regular flights from St. Petersburg Pulkovo airport to four Greek cities, the press service of the Northern Capital Gateway (manages Pulkovo airport) reported. Regular flights from St. Petersburg will be organized to Heraklion, Corfu, Zante, and Thessaloniki. Earlier Ellinair carried out from Pulkovo airport only charter flights.

The demand for tours to Greece on early booking offers on average grew by more than 20 per cent compared to the last year, a survey of tour operators carried out by the Interfax-Tourism indicates. "At the end of 2015, the sales were approximately at the level of the previous year. In January they grew up by 20% compared with the same period of the last year and the end of February grew by over 30% compared to the last February,» the General Director of the tour operator Mouzenidis Travel Alexander Tsandekidi said.

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. 

New resort company, Ikos Resorts, will be at World Travel Market London 2015 to highlight its first two properties, which opened this year. The Ikos Oceania opened in March and the Ikos Olivia opened in May, both in the Greek region of Halkidiki, on the Aegean Sea. The all-inclusive five-star properties offer a new ‘Beach Life’ concept, which includes all-day waiter and childcare services plus beachfront dining. Two of the restaurants at Ikos Oceania overlook a new infinity pool.

Several flights from Moscow to Greece were delayed on Wednesday because of the mass strike of the Greek air traffic controllers at airports. According to information of Domodedovo airport, Aegean Airlines' flight to Heraklion was delayed for three hours. According to the plan the flight was to take off at 11:40, later it was rescheduled for 14:30. Taimyr airline flight to Heraklion was supposed to depart at 13:10, but was rescheduled to 15:00 departure time.

The Ministry of Economy, Infrastructure, Tourism and Maritime Affairs of Greece announced the launch of a new national PR campaign, which should attract tourists and increase the number of "last minutes" bookings, according to Greek Travel Pages web site.

Tour operator Mouzenidis Travel decided to cancel the charter flight from Perm to Thessaloniki, according to information published in the newspaper Kommersant-Perm. The last flight is operated on July 15. Mouzenidis Travel doen not plan to reduce transportation from other regions of Russia, as the representative of the company said in interview to TourDom. Recently Mouzenidis offers tourists from Perm to book tours with a direct flight from Ekaterinburg and with a free transfer between Perm and Ekaterinburg.

In exchange for the financial assistance of the European Union, Greece will have to implement a series of tough reforms. According to the publication of NBC News, the increase of taxes will also affect the tourism industry: VAT for cafes and restaurants will increase from 13% to 23%, for hotels - from 6.5% to 13%.

Russian tourists who are on holidays in Greece, did not feel any effects of the economic crisis in the country, the press secretary of Russian Tourism Ministry Irina Schegolkova reported on Thursday. "We did not receive any complain from the tourists who are in Greece. We got phone calls only from those who bought tickets and going to fly in the near future. These people ask if their trip will be comfortable," Irina Schegolkova said.

The economic crisis in Greece has not affected the interest of Russian tourists to the destination, the number of bookings, on the contrary, increased, according to surveys made by Russian Travel Digest and Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR). According to publication of Interfax, the leading Russian tour operators on the Greek destination are seeing an increase in the number of bookings to Greece.

AEGEAN, a Star Alliance member, once more scooped the award for "Best Regional Airline in Europe" at the 2015 Skytrax World Airline Awards. The award took place on 16 June 2015 at the Paris International Airshow, and, as the organisers of the awards stated, AEGEAN maintained their dominance in Europe and also secured a strong second place finish in the global regional airline category.