ATHENS, Greece – The developments in Cyprus don’t appear to have had any negative effects as far as Greece’s positive outlook for the 2013 season is concerned, according to the president of the Association of Hellenic Tourism Enterprises (SETE), Andreas Andreadis.

The trend in bookings from major markets such as Germany, Britain and Russia remains strongly upward, with SETE expecting foreign tourists this year to total a record 17 million.

The Cyprus crisis failed to dent Russian interest in Greece, as confirmed by the two international travel fairs held in the last few days in Moscow – MITT and the Intour Market. Greek tourism officials expect the number of Russians traveling to Greece this year for holidays to exceed 1 million for the first time ever, up from 875,000 in 2012.

Last week in Moscow the head of the Russian Federal Agency for Tourism, Alexander Radkov, told the general secretary of the Greek Tourism Ministry, Anastasios Liaskos, that Greece is currently Russians’ favorite destination.