Touristiko Panorama Tourism Fair a Mixed Success

Employment Minister Panos Panayiotopoulos and Panorama’s manager, Elena Magaropoulou, greet GTP’s Thanasis Cavdas. The two were the first of a parade of politicians, including Tourism Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos and Athens Mayor Dora Bakoyianni, and prefectures that had taken the time to visit the stands at this year’s Panorama.

This year’s Panorama, the ninth, which ran from April 22-25 at the Piraeus Port Authority Exhibition Center, was dedicated to the Athens-Attica area and the network of Olympic Cities. But like the tourism picture in general this year, Panorama left exhibitors and visitors with mixed feelings.

Most exhibitors, many of which are counting on domestic travel this year, were disappointed in the lower number of visitors to this year’s fair, a drop of more than 13%. This was considered even more worrying since the fair concentrates on domestic tourism and its possibilities, especially with regards to special forms of tourism and regional tourism.

On the positive side, many of the exhibitors said they were able to discuss and even conclude deals with other professionals in the trade who were also exhibitors or visitors to the fair: And on a much larger scale than in other years.

There were also some mixed feelings on this year’s domestic tourism study released by Kapa Research. The annual study showed that one in two Athenians would vacate Athens during August and head for less crowded shores. And although this study concentrated on the Attica area, it said that 40% of Greeks would take a vacation this year, with more than half doing so during the month of August. As well, it said that most all would take the same length of holiday as last year.

George Balakakis of Balakakis Incentives & Worldwide Tour Operators with Tourism Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos. The Balakakis stand was one of the more popular stopover points for this year’s visitors and most went away with information on package holidays abroad as the company specializes in travel to some 22 countries.

But according to research released recently by Greece’s major consumer protection group, at least one in three Greeks has no intention of taking the traditional summer holiday this year, mainly to save money. The Consumer Institute (INKA) said a total of 36 percent of respondents in a poll it carried out said they would be staying put this summer.

Some 71 percent said they could not afford to go on holiday, 19 percent said they had too much work and 8 percent cited family commitments. But even of those who had plans to leave home during the summer, 44 percent proposed heading for their own second home in the countryside, while 29 percent intended to stay with family or friends. Only 27 percent said they would be lodging in a hotel or in rented rooms.

Most (36 percent) said they would take 10 days’ holiday. Some 31 percent proposed going away for two weeks, while 7 percent had plans for a 20-day holiday. Only 4 percent said they intended to travel abroad. Out of those who had picked domestic destinations, over 81 percent said they would head for the seaside.