Mauritius recorded a 17% increase of arrivals from Russia in 2010 compared to 2009. In December alone, 45% more Russians came to the island. In total, 6,600 Russian tourists went to Mauritius last year. In January, Transaero airlines resumed their flights to Mauritius, flying once in 10 days until the end of April.
Austria reported the record number of arrivals from Russia for 2010 - 305,000, which is 23% more than in 2009. This is also more than the previous record of 2008 when 250,000 visited Austria. Forecasts for 2011 talk about overcoming the 2010 figures.
2010 figures for France showed a 25% growth of Russian tourists - 650,000 visitors. To compare, in 2008, 700,000 went to France, and in 2009 the figure was down by 23%, reaching 540,000 Russian visitors. According to Paris Convention Bureau, 350,000 Russians visited Paris in 2010, which is 10% more than last year and 4% of all foreign tourists coming to the French capital.
Muzenidis Travel, an incoming TO for Greece, plans to open an office in Ekaterinburg. This follows the opening of a Greek visa center in Ekaterinburg last year, and the market potential of this city.
Art Tour, a tour operator famous for opening up the UAE in Russia, has started selling a wide range of European destinations and positions itself as a tour operator for the experience seekers and tourists looking for more than just a basic beach holiday.
Natalie Tours started selling packages to Spain a month earlier that usual, in the mid of January. According to the TO, in 2010 they sent 150,000 clients to Spain, which was 30% more than in 2009. In 2011, Natalie plans to increase its volumes, offering good discounts for the early booking, introducing new charter flight from Moscow to Gerona and increase direct flights from the regional cities like Arkhangelsk, Tyumen, Chelyabinsk, Ufa, Perm, Nizhny Novgorod and Volgograd. Apart from Spain, other strategic destinations for Natalie Tours for 2011 will be Greece, Crete and Italy.
TUI Russia & CIS bought the Russian company Svoy Travel Group, an inbound travel company with contracts with a large range of Russian hotels. TUI already owns 2 large outbound Russian operators, Mostravel and VKO Travel and plans to be in the first 3 TO in Russia by 2013.