Two new pages in English about Moscow have appeared recently in Facebook and VKontakte. The city authorities plan to spend 2 million rubles for promoting Moscow in social networks.

Association of Tour Operators of Russia held a press conference about the results of the year and the prospects for 2012.

The Russians take again the leading position in number of the visits to Hong Kong. According to the data of Hong Kong Tourism Authority, almost 117 thousand Russians visited the place during the period from January to November 2011 (+49.1% in comparison with the same period of 2010). Just to compare, 467 818 tourists came from the UK, 206 548 people from Germany and 215 317 travellers from France.

According to the Tourism Counsellor Bureau of Hungary, the Russians spent 379 thousand nights in the hotels of Hungary during the period from January to October 2011 (+16.7%).

The number of the Russian tourists in Cyprus increased by 55% in 2011, announces Cyprus Tourism Organization. Russia took the 2^nd place in number of the tourists instead of 4^th as it was several years ago.

Russia took the first place among the European countries in number of the visits to Thailand during the period from January to November 2011. The growth was even noted during the flood period.

On the threshold of the holidays, Russian Aviation Authorities cancelled some flights from Vladivostok to Seoul by Korean Air. Under the threat of cancelation turned out to be all the sold flights including the dates of December 30 and December 31, 2011.

Almost 2.5 million Russian tourists visited Turkey during the period from January to September 2011 (+14% in comparison with the same period of last year).

Cruise tourists have started to visit Israel less frequent, despite the great interest in the region. According to ATOR Analytical Service, the tourist flow has decreased by ½ during the first 9 months of 2011 in comparison with the same period of last year. Such tendency can be explained by the watchful attitude of the tourists towards the neighboring Egypt.

The interest in the cruise product of the Middle East has been increasing. Such tendency was noted by the regional subdivision of the Royal Caribbean Cruises. According to the company’s estimates, the volume of the sales for the region increased by more than 30% during the period from January to October 2011. The tour operators state the good sales for winter season and an increasing activity of early booking for 2012.

The capital of the UAE Abu Dhabi received 182.6 thousand foreign tourists in October. That was for 21% more than during the same period of last year, announces portal Hotelier Middle East. The tour operators connect such growth with the great number of the air transportation and instability in Egypt.

According to the head office of Cyprus Tourism Organization (CTO) the number of the tourists from Russia increased at the end of the beach season. In October, the number of the Russians increased by almost 46% in comparison with the same period of last year.

The Federal Agency for Tourism (Rostourism) has launched a new informational portal “Welcome to Russia”. 

The number of the process requests of the agents who use TOURINDEX, has increased by 13.4% in October in comparison with the same period of last year. Such information was announced by ATOR Analytical Service. The most popular destination in number of the bookings in September and October became Mexico (increase in 2.7 times than last year).

The operators affirm that New Year tours to Austria have been sold like “hot cakes”. One of the reasons of such popularity is a very attractive price which almost has not changed in comparison with last year. An average price of the tour varies from 700 to 2500 Euros per person. For example, PAC GROUP states the growth of the sales for Austria by 30-35%.