11/08/2019 16:32

Charter Flights To “Elite” Greek Destinations

[IMG=19253-4961] Two new charters to Greece planned for the coming summer season are aimed to convert favorite Greek islands of individual tourists into massive tourism destinations. At the press conference on March 10th representatives of EAST LINE – consolidator of weekly Moskow – Kos Island – announced that the first flight by Transaero would be realized at the beginning of May, while a 50-flight charter program itself is scheduled from June 7th to the middle of September. According to touroperators, Kos has been interesting only for individual tourists. Besides, it has been included into combined tours to Greece. Nevertheless, this summer EAST LINE plan to send around 2, 000 tourists there. Furthermore, Evgenia Bogatireva, Senior Manager of the Greece Department of Rosa Vetrov Travel Company, commented on the situation as follows: ‘Kos Island is worth promoting. We plan to buy blocks on the mew charter. Firstly, the island is conveniently located that allows us to form various tour packages. Secondly, the hotel base is great. Third, the nature there is marvelous that makes Kos the second popular resort after Crete with European tourists’. A propos, regarding its competitiveness experts compare Kos to Crete. Therefore, prices for tours to the destination are initially set at 800-1000 units per week. The exact prices are to be seen, however tourists will pay 300 Euro for flights only. Meanwhile, travel market players do not show much enthusiasm towards the second charter program to Lefkada and Kefalonia by Atlant-Soyuz. The situation is not clear with those companies who will buy blocks from the consolidator of the program – Argo Air. Thus, Petr Govorovsky, commented on the situation as follows: ‘there are destinations for both massive and individual tourism in Greece. Neither Lefkada nor Kefalonia can be promoted as massive destinations without risk to fail’. Travel market players believe that little popularization of the destinations can be explained by expensive hotels that do not meet the standard of a massive destination. Experts also point out that those tourists who will choose either Lefkada or Kefalonia for their trips will prefer higher quality of a flight than a charter can provide.