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.

According to the data of the Border Service of the FSB of Russia, from January to September Russians made 14,18 million tourist trips abroad, which is 9,2% more than the same period a year earlier.

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.

Tour operators named the most popular destinations of the autumn season-2019 according to the volumes of current bookings. As it was expected, Turkey occupies the leading position, but this year a list of top destination has some 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. 

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. 

International airport Krasnodar named after Ekaterina II has started its history in 1932 when 7 air crafts arrived here for agricultural works. A year later the air base Pashkovskaya was founded. Now the airport is situated 12 km away from the city center. Today it is Krasnodar region airport the 3-d large region of Russian Federation.