Russian Tourism: The top-20 tour operators that attract Russians to Greece

Greek tourism market's attention will be focused on Moscow during the following days, as two major international tourism exhibitions, Intourmarket and MITT, will be held there.

Tornos News today presents the key "players" of both events, based on the number of visas granted by Greek consular authorities in Russia, for guests that travelled to Greece during 2015.

According to this data, accredited tour operators and travel agencies have issued a little more than 333,000 visas during 2015, accounting for 82% of all visas issued by Greek consular authorities in Russian territory.

The top 20 tour operators account for nearly 305,000 or 90% of visas issued by a total of 190 travel agencies accredited last year by Greek Consulates for outgoing tourism, while 75,000 visas were issued to individual Russian citizens directly, without any travel agency being involved.

Mouzenidis Travel, Biblio Globus and Pegas Touristik, control over 50% of visas granted through travel agents.

The total number of visas (travel agencies and private combined) fell to 415,633 during 2015, reduced by 47.1% in comparison to 2014 when it exceeded 789,000.

The top 20 tour operators are presented in the following table next to the number of travel visas issued in 2015:

 The next table records the number of visas granted by the respective Greek Consulates in different areas throughout Russia:

About MITT exhibition

Held annually, MITT is one of the top five travel exhibitions in the world and is highly valued by the international tourism community.

Founded in 1994, the MITT exhibition has earned its reputation as the place to do business.

With over 1,800 participating companies and more than 192 countries and regions, MITT is the key meeting place for the industry and an opportunity to catch up with colleagues and clients. In addition, it enables participants to increase awareness of their destination, present their new programmes and gain a real feel for the Russian travel market.

Exhibitors:

• National and Regional Tourist Board
• Tour operators
• Hotels and accommodation facilities
• Online booking Systems
•  Airlines
• Clinics
• organizations that provide tourist attractions, as well as offering insurance services, car rental, education, purchase and lease of real estate abroad and conduct business activities.

Visitors:

Representatives of travel agencies, tour operators, booking systems, corporate customers of the organizations and enterprises of various branches of the Russian economy, as well as private individuals and travel lovers.

2016 marks MITT's 23rd edition. Each year, the exhibition brings together representatives of the global tourism business. Over four days, 32,162 unique visitors from 75 regions of Russia attended MITT 2015, 76% of visitors were professionals in the tourism industry.

The MITT event is accredited by UFI, the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry. For the full 2015 post-show report, click here.

MITT 2016 will occupy 7 exhibition halls and pavilions:

• Pavilion 2 (Halls 1- 3) – European, Mediterranean, Scandinavian and Baltic destinations
• Pavilion 8 Hall 1 – Multi-focused outbound Russian tour operators
• Pavilion 8 Hall 2 – Russia and the CIS: Inbound tour operators, hotels, river cruises, and the IT in Tourism sector
• Pavilion 8 Hall 3 – Russian Pavilion – Russian tourism destinations
• Pavilion Forum – Middle East, Asia, Americas, Africa
• Outside – Coach tour operators

About «Intourmarket » Travel Fair 

ITM is the main tourism event that is officially supported by the Russian Federal Agency for tourism and other federal and professional organizations contributing to the travel industry development in Russia. Its main characterstics are the following:

• a travel fair held by the Russian organizer — «Expotour» Ltd.
• destined to meet interests of all travel market participants (both Russian and foreign)
• a B2B oriented event for professional audience
• a carefully crafted price policy for the exhibition participants
• a favorable work environment in the International Exhibition Centre «Crocus Expo» that meets all modern standards
• the implementation of the Hosted Buyers business meeting program which is unique for Russian exhibitions
• the guarantee that you meet selected Hosted Buyers from the Russian regions
• an active business program that covers all current travel industry issues «Intourmarket 2016»
• the implementation of the Hosted Buyers business meeting program which is unique for Russian exhibitions

The 11th International Travel Fair «Intourmarket 2016» is to be held with the support of the Government of the Russian Federation as well as of the following bodies:

• Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation
• Federal Agency for Tourism
• Moscow City Committee for Tourism and Hotel Industry
• Administrative Department of the President of the Russian Federation
• United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)
• Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR)
• Russian Union of Travel Industry (RST)