The Great Greek Movement

[IMG=20401-6154]On July 20th and 21st the Greek Consulate in Moscow will not accept visa applications, planning only to issue visas on these days, while on July 24th the Consulate will be closed owing the movement to another office. Therefore, consulate agents recommended travel companies, which clients booked tours for the end of the month, to apply for visas until July 18th. Tour operators that specialize in the Greek market are concerned about possible implications of the ‘Greek movement’. They are mainly concerned about the possibility to lose tourist’ documents and technical problems. Thus, Irina Shishkina, the Head of the Greek Department of Voyage – Travel Club, commented: ‘for us the main problems will refer to tourists from Russian regions. They know about the standard terms, therefore at the moment we have to phone them urgently to warn about possible situation with visas’. Moreover, travel market experts point out that usually the Greek Consulate issue visas on the day before the departure date not considering the application date. Therefore, they are afraid that the current situation might increase a number of delays. On the other hand, experts hope the Greek Consulate will cope with the work load and will try to assist travel companies. Thus, Lubov Chistyakova, Executive Director of Mondo Tours, said: ‘in particular, the Greek Consul plan to meet with travel companies to discuss the ways to minimize problems’. Furthermore, Alexander Skopintsev, the Head of the Greek department of ICS Travel Group, added: ‘if travel agents apply for visa in advance there should not be any problems’.