Bulgaria, Greece Lure Russian Tourists

Both Greece and Bulgaria, two of Turkey’s neighbors, have stepped forward to lure Russian tourists, who have abstained from their most popular destination as part of Moscow sanctions on Ankara due to the downing of Russian military plane last November.

Greece has started granting three-year visas for Russian tourists with a single-day procedure, as Bulgaria has lowered its visa fees.

Last year, some 3.5 million Russian tourists visited Turkey, where they enjoyed visa-free travel. Many of them chose “all-inclusive” packages offered by hotels in the country’s Mediterranean and Aegean resorts.

Oleg Safonov, the head of the Russian Tourism Agency, told RSN, a Moscow-based radio, that Bulgaria and Greece were in action to replace Turkey.

Greece has opened new visa offices in Russia and employed more staff, in a bid to break a 2013 record of 1.5 million Russian visitors, he said.

Bulgaria, meanwhile, has stopped demanding fingerprints from Russian visitors.

Ankara and Moscow have been at odds since Turkey downed a Russian fighter jet operating in Syria on Nov 24, 2015, for insistent violation of its airspace.

Scheduled flights between Russia and Turkey by the two countries’ flag carriers have dropped almost 50 percent along with the number of passengers after the downing of Russian jet since then, a Turkish tourism executive said last week.

A total of 22,106 people from Russia visited Turkey in January, a decline of 56.7 percent compared to the same month of the previous year.

However, Russia’s federal tourism agency Rostourism restored 13 out of 19 licenses of Turkish-owned tour operators that were revoked as part of Moscow’s sanctions, as reported by Russian media on March 16.

One tourism player claimed that only 55 Russians visited Antalya in February.

Dmitry Gorin, the vice-president of the Russian Tour Operators, said Russian tourists were instead choosing Greek Cyprus along with Greece and Bulgaria this year, and were also interested in southeastern Asia.

Russians have placed 20 to 30 percent more bookings in total when compared with a year earlier, he said, adding that the Egypt route was still not open.

Gorin told Russia Today earlier last week that Gorin, Russian tourists were “a rather tricky task” for Albania, as the Muslim country had strong rivals such as neighboring Montenegro and Greece as well as Bulgaria, Greek Cyprus and Russia’s own Black Sea resorts.

“There are 230 resort hotels in the country that can accommodate a total of 8,000 people [but lack the] Turkish-style ‘all inclusive’ format that was so popular among Russian tourists,” he said, also highlighting the lack of direct flights.

IRAN: Iran Welcomes Russian Tourists

A delegation from Iran, headed by deputy head of the Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization Mortaza Rahmani Movahed, arrived in Moscow on Thursday to discuss cooperation in tourism with Rostourism (Russia's State Agency for Tourism).

A significant increase in Iranian tourists visiting Russia was witnessed in 2015, the Association of Tour Operators said on its website.
Nearly 34,000 Iranian tourists visited Russia in the first nine months of 2015, a rise of 111 percent when compared to the same period a year ago.
In November, Iran and Russia agreed to reciprocally launch tourism offices in their countries.
A world leader in the number of historical and artistic highlights, Iran boasts over a thousand world-class hotels and nearly as many recreational facilities are now under construction.

During a meeting with Mortaza Rahmani Movahed, Rostourism head Oleg Safonov said that Iran was one of the safest places for Russian tourism and that Russia was ready for closer cooperation in this field.

“There are many beautiful places in Russia and Iran that tourists could visit and I hope that, with the visa regime lifted, there will be more tourist exchanges between our two countries. Today we invited the heads of Russia’s leading tour companies to come to Iran and see for themselves what we can do to have more Russian tourists traveling to our country and Iranians to Russia,” Mortaza Rahmani Movahed said.

He also said that Iran could fill the void Russia’s tour industry has experienced as a result of worsening relations with Egypt and Turkey.
“Russian tourists are welcome to come any time of year and enjoy any kind of service they possibly need. We carefully study the Russians’ mentality and tastes and will try to offer them the very best service money can buy,” Mortaza Rahmani Movahed emphasized.

Meanwhile, an official with the Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization said that Iran planned to inaugurate a tourism representative office in Russia in the near future.

The head of the organization’s marketing and publicity department, Mohammad Kazem Kholdi, added that Iran was keen on hosting Russian tourists and would work out the details.

Iranian Ambassador to Russia Mehdi Sanaei said on Thursday that Iran could abolish its visa regime for tourists arriving in the country from Russia on a unilateral basis.

Iranian airline Mahan Air will launch direct flights between Moscow and Tehran beginning January 21.

RUSSIA: Russia Tourism Boosted By Weak Ruble

The weakening of the ruble has helped Russia to attract more tourists.

According to estimates by the Russian Tourism Industry Union, the number of tourists visiting Russia has increased by 13 percent in the first nine months of the year, compared with the same period in 2014.

In total, foreign tourists have made 2.54 million trips to Russia between January and September this year, which is the highest amount since 2008, the report said.

Chinese tourists became the largest group of foreign tourists to Russia in the first nine months of the year, accounting for 22.9 percent of the total amount of foreign travelers visiting Russia, according to data from the Russian Tourism Industry Union.

Germany came in second with 12.6 percent of the total number of visits followed by the U.S. with a 6 percent share and Turkey, accounting for 4.6 percent of the total number of tourists, according to the report.

Vladimir Kantorovich, first vice president of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia, attributes the growth of the number of tourists visiting Russia to the weakening of the ruble, which lost more than 40 percent of its value against the U.S. dollar since the beginning of last year.

Russia became a very cheap destination for many tourists, Kantorovich said.

While the number of foreign tourists traveling to Russia is growing, the outbound tourism in Russia has been reeling from the economic recession and the ruble drop.

Since the beginning of the year, the tourist flow from Russia fell by 31.4 percent, Oleg Safonov, the head of Russia's federal tourism agency Rostourism, said.

Apart from the economic causes, the outbound tourism in Russia has been affected by Russia's recent ban on flights to Egypt imposed after the crash of the Russian passenger plane in the Sinai Peninsula as a result of a terrorist attack, as well as the ban on selling package tours to Turkey after the downing of the Russian warplane near the Syrian border.

In addition, Russia will introduce visa requirements for Turkish citizens starting on Jan. 1, 2016 as part of the sanctions against the country, which can have a negative impact in the development of the inbound tourism in Russia.

According to the statistics, Turkey represents a significant growth in the number of tourists going to Russia.

In the first nine months of the year, the number of tourists from Turkey visiting Russia has increased by 15.6 percent, compared with the same period last year, according to data from the Russian Tourism Industry Union.

RUSSIA: 79,000 Russians Stranded In Egypt

Around 79,000 Russians are stranded in Egypt after the Kremlin grounded all flights to the country following a deadly Russian airliner crash, the head of Russia's state tourism agency said on Saturday.

President Vladimir Putin ordered the flight suspension on Friday, a possible sign that Russia is attaching more credence to the theory that a bomb brought down a Russian passenger jet in Egypt a week ago, killing all 224 people on board.

Oleg Safonov, the head of Rostourism, said most Russians in Egypt had been holidaying in the Red Sea resorts of Hurghada and Sharm al-Sheikh and that 1,200 had already been returned home.

"A planned process to evacuate tourists will be executed," Russian news agencies quoted Safonov as saying. "Planes will arrive empty and be boarded by those tourists who should return home on that date."

Safonov said passengers would be returning without hold luggage, mirroring a decision made by Britain as part of chaotic efforts to return thousands of its tourists home amid heightened security concerns.

The Russian Travel Industry Union said nearly all Russian tourists due to visit Egypt in the coming days had agreed to fly to Turkey instead.

"In the near future, flights which should have flown to Egypt are being redirected to Antalya," union spokeswoman Irina Turina says. "Practically all tourists have agreed with this."