In current research, Russia and China are examined as two of the most important emerging tourism markets for Greek inbound tourism. In the beginning of this essay figures of global tourism are analyzed. The analysis is focusing on Russian and Chinese outbound tourism and prospects for future decades. It becomes obvious that Russia and especially China are important tourism markets globally in terms of arrivals and expenditures. As a result, the specific characteristics of a growing proportion of international tourist trends are changing, therefore destinations have to adjust their policies to attract them.

Consequently, figures from the Greek tourism market are analyzed. More specifically, data presented here refer to arrivals, overnight stays, tourism receipts and tourism expenditures per country of origin. According to the analysis, Russia has already surpassed other traditional markets of Greek inbound tourism such as France and Italy. On the other hand, China is still low in terms of arrivals. Nevertheless, the annual increases in the rates of Chinese figures clearly state that the Chinese market shows the greatest potential of all markets of Greek inbound tourism, even of Russia. Finally, this research comes up with conclusions and recommendations by taking into account both the analysis of data and a qualitative evaluation of specific characteristics of Russian and Chinese tourists. The latter encompasses activities regarding to the destination, seasonality, and tourism expenditure. Shortly, both markets show high level of tourism expenditure, low seasonality, especially China, and an increased propensity to culture and shopping.