A bilateral tourism conference between Greece and Russia, called ‘Russia-Greece: Prospects of cooperation in tourism’, will be held between May 10 and 13 in Athens. The two sides will exchange ideas and explore the prospects of expanding their collaboration in the tourism industry. Outbound tourism dropped from Russia to Greece in the past 9-month period by 48 percent due to the unfavourable Euro-Ruble exchange rate for Russians, compared to the flows in 2014. The Greek National Tourism Organisation (GNTO), however, projects this trend in Russian travellers will be reversed in 2016 and recover to the positive 2013 levels. Greek hotel owners are dropping their prices in order to become more lucrative to the Russian market, while Greece has also increased the number of extended visas to Russians and opened up new visas issuing centres to cater for Russian travellers. Meanwhile, the number of Greeks visiting Russia has increased by 7 percent over the past 9 months, with Russia planning to open an office in Thessaloniki in order to boost this number. The conference will be held with the support of the Ministry of Economy, Development and Tourism. Russia will be represented by the head of the Federal Tourism Services, Oleg Safonov and the Russian Union of Tourism Industry. A number of Greek hotels and professionals from the tourism industry will take part on the meeting.