Feature

New Destinations Offered to the Regional Cities of Russia

Rostov-on-Don: As of April, Spain, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Malta and Iceland opened a joint visa centre in the Southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don; Greece and Bulgaria are also considering joining in. At the same time, local carrier Don Avia announced new regular flights to a number of European destinations, including Prague, Vienna, Frankfurt, Istanbul and Barcelona. These are in addition to numerous charter flights that run from the city.

Nizhny Novgorod: will have an increase in charters flights to existing destinations, and add some new charters to Italy and Montenegro. For example, Ascent Travel will be chartering flights from Nizhny to Croatia, Tivat in Montenegro and Rimini in Italy. Pac Group also announces their own charter programs to Rimini. There is also an increase of a number of charters to Turkey from Tez Tour and other large operators. Local companies say that in the case prices with direct flights from Nizhny will be competitive with the Moscow offers, the demand will be enough both for Turkey and for the European sea resorts.

Kazan: Kazan, the capital of the autonomous republic of Tatarstan, is attracting the attention of Moscow Tour Operators. New destinations and charter programs will start in Kazan for Italy, Montenegro and summer charters to Egypt and Tunisia will continue. One of the leading Moscow operator for Greece, Youzhny Krest, will introduce Rhodes and Crete, while Natalie Tours and Tez Tour will increase the no. of charter programs to Spain.

Ekaterinburg: New destinations this summer season include Tunisia, run by Pegas Touristi, and Rimini by Danko Travel. Pegas will also add charters to Crete, with Ural Airlines also offering regular flights to Crete and Saloniki. Youzhny Krest will have a weekly charter program to Rhodos and considering direct flights to Kos (Greece). Pegas Touristik will come to the market with a new offer to Spain, even though Tez Tour and Natalie Tours already offer programs there, resulting in 3 times more flights to Barcelona now then in the summer of 2009.