Tourism Minister in Russia

First Published:	22/03/2010 12:52:55
Greece has decided to be present with all its force in Russia's tourist exhibitions and activerly promote its decision to facilitate as much as possible the issuing of multiple entry and long duration visas for Russian citizens, according to Culture and Tourism Minister Pavlos Geroulanos, who visited Moscow's MITT-2010 tourist exhibition on Friday. "More and more Russian tourists are deciding to combine their holidays with cultural events and visits to monuments and archaeological sites, a fact that serves our strategy and the combination of our ministry's two directions, that must not only be achieved at leadership level, but in the entire pyramid of actions," Geroulanos told Greek correspondents in Moscow, summing up his initial assessments on his contacts with tourist agencies. Earlier, Geroulanos met with his Russian counterpart, Aleksandr Avdeyev, who showed special interest in the European Europeana digitalisation programmes, in which Greece leads in experiences, planning the extension of relevant cooperation with Microsoft as well. Gereoulanos said that the Russian side also found interesting the carrying out of the merger between the culture and tourism ministries, as well as the possibility of developing cooperation between the two countries in the sector of sport and the hosting of Russian teams during the period of their preparation. The Culture and Tourism minister also visited the famous Puskin Visual Arts Museum and met with its director Irina Antonova who, among other things, remembered with emotion her cooperation and meetings with late actress Melina Merkouri and expressed the desire to host some exhibition or even some excellent examples of classical sculpture art.
Source:  Athens News Agency http://www.ana.gr