Demand for beach holidays in Greece this summer season has increased significantly, major Russian tour operators told to Vestnik ATOR.

According to OneTwoTrip Italy is the most popular destination among tourists — 31.4% of Russians plan the holidays in in Italy this year.

In Athens Moldovan Minister of Culture Sergiu Prodan met with Greek Minister of Tourism Olga Kefaloyanni, with whom he discussed the possibility of cooperation and exchange of experience between the departments of the two countries.

In summer 2025 Russians will be able to travel to the resorts of Crete with only one convenient connection. Package tours to this destination were launched by the tour operator Fun & Sun.

Tour Operator Sputnik Armenia announced charter flights from Yerevan to Rhodes, Greece. The flights will be operated on the aircrafts of Aegean Airlines.

Despite the sanctions, difficulties in obtaining visas and the lack of direct flights, Russian tourists do not refuse to travel to Europe in the summer season of 2024.

Early booking of a summer holiday in Greece is already available for tourists from different regions of the Russian Federation. Russians buy tours in advance, saving up to 55%. For 2024, tour operators are increasing their flight program to Greece and counting on positive sales dynamics.

The Spanish authorities continue to be the leader in issuing Schengen visas in Russia, as recently published statistics show. In 2022, a quarter of all documents issued to Russian were Spanish: 154 450 visas out of 603 955.

Greece received more than a million foreign tourists in the first quarter of 2023, the tourist flow is growing from both the EU and the US, but the number of tourists from Russia has decreased by almost 50%.

The demand for tours to Greece in the 2023 season is higher than in the spring of 2022. Of course, it is still far from the sales figures of 2021, but there are positive trends.

The tour operator Pegas announced the start date of programs to Greece in the summer season. A flight program to Heraklion (Crete) is on connecting flights of Turkish Airlines, Red Wings and Southwind with a change in Antalya.

Only 36,1 thousand arrivals from Russia were recorded in Greece in 2022. This is 16,2 times less than it was in the pre-pandemic 2019. The flow of tourists from the Russian Federation to Greece in 2022 decreased by 3,3 times compared to 2021.

Ambotis Holidays now offers tours to the Greek islands of Rhodes and Kos with ferry transportation from Turkey.

Tourists have begun to show greater interest in Italy and Greece compared to last year. There is a noticeable revival of these destinations.

Tours to Crete (Heraklion) have appeared in Pegas Touristik booking system. The package offer is arranged on the basis of connecting flights in Antalya with departures from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Perm.

Tour operators estimate the increase of bookings to Greece from 15 to 30% (in comparison with the beginning of 2021). The demand for tours to Greece is generally better than expected,

The agreement on the resumption of 11 regular flights between Greece and Russia in the summer season was announced by the Federal Air Transport Agency and its Greek counterpart, the Greek Civil Aviation Service.

In the first half of 2021, the most popular destinations among Russian travelers were Turkey, Cyprus and Greece.

The tour operator Tez-Tour announced the extension of the flight programs to the resorts of the islands of Crete, Rhodes and Corfu until the end of October.

In the premium segment, there is no decrease in demand for Greece, while in the middle segment, sales are very far from the indicators of 2019.

Tours for the autumn season, 2021, according to the observations of the tourist experts, are quite in demand. In general, the TOP-10 most popular foreign destinations for the autumn season this year, as per the data of tour operators, includes Turkey, UAE, Maldives, Greece, Cuba, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Abkhazia and Croatia.

The situation with fires in Greece remains tense, although most of the large outbreaks have already been taken under control and are taking place outside the tourist areas where Russians spend holidays.

The Russian Embassy in Greece calls on Russian tourists to refrain from visiting Greece in connection with the ongoing forest fires in the Balkan Peninsula.