"We are aiming for a million": an interview with Russian Express' commercial director

In August 2026, Russian Express, one of Russia's leading tour operators, launched a new series of educational events for agents - Trevolution. During the conference in Almaty, Kazakhstan, the editor-in-chief of Russian Travel Digest Marina Zatsepina sat down with Anton Savostyanov, the company’s Commercial Director. In this exclusive interview, they discuss the company's remarkable 30-year journey, its expansion into 80+ destinations, and its ambitious goal to serve a million tourists this year. 

Marina Zatsepina: Let’s start from the very beginning: who the Russian Express is. The company celebrated its 30th anniversary this year. How did Russian Express begin, and where is it now?  

Anton Savostyanov: Russian Express is a company that turned 30 in 2026. It started as a niche tour operator for the Middle East because its owner Taras Kobishchanov is an orientalist.  Today, Russian Express operates on more than 80 destinations, has over 800 employees, more than 20 offices in three different countries: Russia, Kazakhstan, and Belarus. We are travel ecosystem with several main products: the first is the classic tour operator which offers package tours; the second is platform for FIT tours, and the third is Online Express - a b2b platform consolidating favorable rates that includes all major suppliers in the hotel segment. We also operate travel school Sequoia – the only online school in Russia with governmental accreditation (therefore, it provides educational certificates for the students). So, we open doors for people who are interested in tourism, educate them, provide tools and products to create a business in tourism sector.  

Marina Zatsepina: What was your total tourist volume last year, and how does that compare to the previous year?  

Anton Savostyanov: Last year we had over 800,000 tourists, the year before it was slightly less. This year we are aiming for a million tourists. And we have not adjusted the goal despite the running military conflicts.  

Marina Zatsepina: What are the main destinations for your company?  

Anton Savostyanov: Turkey, China, all exotic destinations like the Maldives, Seychelles, Mauritius, then Thailand, Vietnam, Russia (domestic tours), and the UAE, despite the crisis. Oh, and Italy, France, by the way. And Japan is growing very well this year.  

Marina Zatsepina: Which destinations have you added to your list just 1-2 years ago, where you already see huge potential and significant growth?  

Anton Savostyanov: I have already mentioned Japan. Then now there is absolutely a renaissance of Vietnam. It has skyrocketed. China is undoubtedly the breakthrough of the year. Then Tanzania, and generally Africa as a continent has increasing number of requests.  

Marina Zatsepina: Which new destinations would you like to add to your list? Or what kind of travel is of main interest for Russian Express?  

Anton Savostyanov: Literally at today’s Travolution Workshop, we were talking about emotional travel. These are expedition cruises, traveling to unexplored corners, like the Putorana Plateau, Kamchatka, Angel Falls, and so on. That is what we want to develop. In general, we believe in the development of emotional tourism.  

Marina Zatsepina: I have heard that you don’t operate charter flights. Is that a principled position of your company?  

Anton Savostyanov: It is a principled position of the owner and the General Director, because exactly this decision allows us not to depend on crisis risks.  

Marina Zatsepina: How many partners do you usually have per destination?  

Anton Savostyanov: In my understanding, it is most comfortable to work with three to five or six partners; more are basically not needed. Three partners allow us to provide stable, high-quality service regardless of the destination.  

Marina Zatsepina: What are your selection criteria for DMCs or hotels?  

Anton Savostyanov: First and foremost, these are the stability and reputation of the partner in the market. We try not to get involved with little-known, unverified partners. Last year, we have implemented SLAs (Service Level Agreements) for Russian Express. We derived standards for ourselves, and we discussed these standards with our DMC partners.   Primarily it is about the quality of tourist service inside the trip. And at the moment when we make a booking, it is about the quality and speed of responses to us. Because our market dictates the rules: whoever is the first gets the sales.  

Marina Zatsepina: Well, what is your requirement for response speed?  

Anton Savostyanov: Half an hour, or even less, during the working day. If it is evening time, we are ready to wait up to three or four hours. But we always ask for a dedicated manager for our company, because we work with that segment of clients who are not used to waiting.  

Marina Zatsepina: How can the potential partner contact you?  

Anton Savostyanov: There is a general address: join@r-express.ru.  

Marina Zatsepina: Your main office is in Moscow. In which other cities do you have offices, and what is the difference between them and the main office? Why is a regional office needed?  

Anton Savostyanov: Let me explain the structure. The Moscow office is the heart and brain of everything the company does. This is the main sales, product development, IT. back-office, accounting, finance, legal support, development of the tour product, plus top management. Regional offices are primarily responsible for communication with travel agents and sales. We have offices in Saint Petersburgh, Yekaterinburg, Kazan, Novosibirsk, representatives in Vladivostok, Krasnodar, Minsk (Belarus), and office in Kazakhstan: Almaty  

Marina Zatsepina: According to your estimations, how many travel agencies are in total in Russia and Kazakhstan?  

Anton Savostyanov: In Russia, according to estimates by various companies, in general there are about 30,000 travel agencies. We believe that the number of real agencies who generate at least some revenue is about 20,000. Out of them, about 4,000 - 5,000 are “small ones”, individual entrepreneurs who serve a very small segment.  

Marina Zatsepina: How many agent partners does Russian Express have in Russia and, accordingly, in Kazakhstan?  

Anton Savostyanov: The target for this year is 14,000 for Russia; we are currently at, I think, 87 or 89 percent completion. If we talk about Kazakhstan, the target there is 1,500; we currently cooperate with about 900 agents.  

Marina Zatsepina: Now almost all tour operators hold events for travel agents - workshops, conferences, business breakfasts. For the last few years, you have been holding “Trevolution». What makes this event unique, how does it differ from other workshops? Roughly speaking, why do travel agents come to your event?  

Anton Savostyanov: Trevolution has a clear USP (Unique Selling Proposition). It is the largest educational project in the tourism sector. First, we bring practitioners to give travel agents inspiration and tools for growth. Secondly, we bring the product. So, Trevolution is a symbiosis of tools and products needed by the agents. By attending Trevolution, agents become faster, stay on trend, use modern advanced technologies, and then move simply faster in operational activities, in their product segment, ultimately earning more money.  

Marina Zatsepina: Let’s amaze our readers: how many travel agents do usually attend Trevolution?  

Anton Savostyanov: If we talk about last year, the regions gathered 700-800 agents each, Moscow gathered 1,400-1,500 people. This year in Kazakhstan there were 950 agents registered, and according to the latest information, about 600 agents attended. For Russia, we expect about 800-900 agents in the regions; Moscow has a large venue planned for 1,500-2,000 agents. It is also important to note that last year Trevolution became the largest non-exhibition travel conference, and we overtook Virtuoso, which takes place in Las Vegas. Virtuoso gathered 4,900; we gathered 5,700 agents, visited venues with qr-code verification on entrance.  

Marina Zatsepina: Well, truly wonderful numbers. What is the advantage then for a partner to participate in Trevolution, besides the fact that they essentially get access to a large number of agents?  

Anton Savostyanov: Number one is product awareness. Number two is an opportunity to present the novelties.  

Marina Zatsepina: What options or participation packages do you offer your partners?  

Anton Savostyanov: There are three participation options: a table on the workshop, a presentation, and a presentation on the main stage. There are also packages for these: if you take a table plus a presentation, you get a certain discount. Accordingly, if you take several cities, these discounts multiply; you can save 30-35% of the cost. For National Tourism Offices and Hotel Chains special projects are available, like city partner or TrEvolution partner. For example in 2025 Rixos Hotels worldwide was a general partner of conferences, in 2026 Swan Hellenic cruises is a partner.  

Marina Zatsepina: What is the strength of Russian Express, what is its main feature, in your opinion?  

Anton Savostyanov: Service. We often hear from our own partners that we are one of the most service-oriented tour operators. If you remember, some time ago, the slogan of the Russian Express tour operator was “a tour operator with a human face.” Literally two years ago, we changed our positioning and formulated our mission as follows: for an agent in the Russian market, we use the phrase “a tour operator that cares about you.” We carried this principle into our work with partners as well.   Our service spans from the moment of interaction to the moment we earn money. This is reflected in cash discipline, culture of interaction, culture of feedback. We are demanding, of course, but everything we demand from partners, we demand from ourselves first and foremost. That is why all parties, own employes, partners, agents and tourists value us.