Optimism for tourism from Russia

While total outbound tourism from Russia will decline this year as well as in 2015, Cyprus and Greece will again be the exception as last year. In fact, the increased bookings for the whole year up to 50% by some big organizers such as Biblio – globous create conditions to surpass the record of Russian arrivals in Cyprus, which was in 2014 with 650 thousand tourists.

As stated by the general manager of PASYXE, Zacharias Ioannidis, who returned last week from the big tourism exhibition in Moscow, the tourism industry of our country can be moderately optimistic that the Russian tourist market will go very well this year. Last year, he added, as tourism from Russia was drastically reduced everywhere, Cyprus managed to minimize its losses, while this year we can rightly talk about a significant increase.

As Mr. Ioannidis explained, outbound tourism from Russia may be significantly reduced, but at the same time destinations such as Turkey and Egypt have been virtually erased from the map. Thus other alternative solutions are sought, with all the other Mediterranean destinations gaining priority.

Ο γ.δ. of PASYXE also noted that this year for the first time Cyprus includes in its programs three new travel organizers, a fact which is also an additional element of restrained optimism. The new organizers are the companies mouzenidis-travel, which specializes in Greece and Cyprus now, transporting tourists from all over Eastern Europe and not only from Russia, as well as the companies Coral and Annex that until now were at the center of their activities. Turkey as a destination and are now looking for alternatives, including Cyprus.

In addition to the above positive messages, the official of the Hoteliers Association stressed that the attendance at this year's major tourist fair in Moscow was sluggish, while the focus was on kiosks with domestic destinations such as the Crimea, the Sochi region, etc. He also stressed that the Russian government strongly encourages domestic tourism in this vast country with various incentives, including a subsidy of up to 50% of fares, whether by air or rail.

Mr. Ioannidis also noted that this year will be even more increased the usually high last minute tourist bookings from Russia. This is because Russian potential travelers will wait until the last minute for the best exchange rate of the ruble before making their reservations due to the weakening position of the Russian currency in the last period.

Finally, Mr. Ioannidis called on all tourism partners to treat with prudence, professionalism and responsibility any benefits that arise this year from the Russian market, building on them and not with actions that will be characterized by opportunism and temporary utilitarianism.

Source: Liberal