Greek consulate petition (EN)

Dear mrs. Michalopoulou!

Let me address you with this request, please find 10 minutes of your precious time to go through it.
First I'd like to emphasize that I now speak in the name of hundreds of tourists who frequently visit Greece both using travel agencies and arranging their vacations by themselves. That said, this is the collective initiative of people opted to vote for it.
I'd also like to emphasize that this is the open letter which has been reviewed by all the people who voted for its content and narrative. Would you be so kind to respond, it will be made public on the Internet.
To the moment I send this message, more than 750 people have confirmed their votes for this letter. Here is the petition we've created and promote now: http://goo.gl/ZekuZb .

Many Russian travellers who visited Greece and other European and Asian countries still choose your country as a place of their next vacations. Some like hotels at the beaches, most of which proudly bear prestigious mark for their cleanness and facilities — European Blue Flag award. Others rent a car aiming to see Greece's many cities, meet as many hospitable Greeks as possible. Family vacations are also immensely popular — parents take their children and their parents as well and return home with such a deep emotions that their next destination is out of question for them — it's only Greece they want to see again. People spend their summer time on the beaches and nights in tavernas, and during winter we hit mountain ski resorts. These are attractions unique to Greece: cultural agendas in Athens and Epidavros, numerous museums and archaeological sites, UNESCO cultural heritage sites, globally recognizable sights of Santorini, summits of Olympos and Taygetus, Samaria gorge, famous Cretan celebrations filled with joy and friendship, and many others one can find only in Greece. Believers take pilgrimage to sacred Mount Athos, visit “flying” Meteora monasteries, arrange their vacations with respect to great religious dates because Greeks and Russians share the same religion. And of course everybody love Mediterranean Greek cuisine known as one the most healthy and delicious in the whole world.

About a million of Russian tourists visited your country in 2014, and its majority are those who return to Greece for a second, third time on a wave of memories of the best vacations they had. We bring back home brightest emotions and colourful photos, soft touch of salty water and mountain wind, suntan and smile — and the great desire to return there again.

In other words, you can treat us as the utmost loyal travellers who love your country, its hospitable people, great nature created as to be the best for relieve, and multi millennium history which has left such a huge impact on world history.

Many Russian visitors to Greece already have several Greek Schengen visas in their passports issued in the past which have different terms in sense of time and number of allowed visits. Applying for a new visa next time, it's unfortunately a common practice for Russian travellers to be granted with visas issued for a short period of allowed time to be in Schengen zone, that is, for exact number of days of future vacation. Also, as an example, for 2 parents with 2 children it costs 10.000 roubles if they apply in Greek Consulate, and even more, around 15.000 roubles if they take their documents to Greek visa service centre. This sum is too big for many and it is spent not for the vacation in Greece but for being allowed to enter Greece. And families have to reserve this money again for the next application. But these people would spend much more euros in Greece if they are allowed to visit it again and again more easily without a hassle of going through repeated visa granting process. Such limitations are impeding growth of tourists’ flow to Greece on all-year-round basis. To get a short term visa every time traveller have to submit a lot of different documents, book hotel with 30% prepayment, buy tickets, and all that while keeping in mind the risk of visa rejection which makes whole thing of reaching Greece quite complicated and risky, compared to other countries.

For many of us Greece is not a mere sea resort. We closely track country's affairs, happy for its achievements, share the pain of difficulties you face now. One of the latest news on Greek Travel Pages web site expresses Halkidiki authorities' concerns over the significant drop in the number of pre-bookings by Russian travellers this year. In 2012 around 100.000 Russian guests visited that region, in 2014 the number was 180.000. This year's forecast is a sad 50% drop. Visa issues were mentioned as one of the top reasons which hinder Russian inbound tourism. And this happens despite the great Greece presence on MITT tourism exhibition in Moscow this March. These numbers show that Russians still massively want to visit Greece whose tourism industry expands so quickly.

Also, in an interview to the Russian news agency “RIA Novosti” deputy minister of tourism Elena Koundoura expressed her hope for a new good tourist season 2015 for Greece and spoke out for lowering the bar of visa granting process and visa validity terms. Mrs. Koundoura supports the development of year-round tourism initiative in Greece, rightfully arguing that the country has all the attractions, resources and established infrastructure to invite visitors 365 days a year.

Perfectly understanding the complexity of the problem of taking decision on visas' terms in every particular case, we still would like to address you (and — would it be possible by your means — Greek Ministry of Tourism officials) with appeal to increase the ratio of long-term visas: 1 year, 2 years, 5 years, for us the loyal visitors. We kindly ask you to consider granting long-term visas for those who visited Greece several times before and didn't violate visa terms and conditions. We assure you that the owner of such allowance will definitely visit Greece many times choosing new place, new visit time, new route, new resort or hotel, but not new country.

The road to Greek seas, islands and mountains starts for us here in Russia. Please, help us make this wonderful journey as easy and well-remembered as possible from its very start and up to the last minute on Greek land!

Looking forward to hear your comments on the above,
with respect and hope for the better,
..........