Athens Hosts First Luxury Travel Show

Alexis Caniaris, managing director of the fair’s organizer, Europartners; Chrissa Karka, Exclusive Travel’s welcome desk supervisor; and Chris Nicolaides, chairman of the fair’s organizing committee.

Luxury travel is an industry in its own right representing 3% of elite travelers worldwide who account for 20% of total annual travel expenditures. This segment of tourism is expanding at an increasing rate and shows no sign of slowing down.

“Exclusive Travel 2005: The Luxury Travel & Tourism Event” was the first niche event in Greece dedicated to luxury travel and directed at those who seek luxurious tourism products and services. Based on the models of successful international exhibitions, it aims to fill the gap that exists in the Greek market with the lack of a specialized event dedicated to luxury travel for specific target groups.

Participants at Exclusive Travel 2005, some 60 in all, presented their products and services within a clean and well-managed exhibition environment. Most, but not all, exhibitors came from the hotel trade and covered luxury accommodation in some of Greece’s more popular destinations. Besides destinations, up-market conference possibilities and luxurious accommodations, there were exhibitors that presented transportation and unique travel experiences.

Also on hand were several destinations, such as Mauritius, Tunisia and Slovenia, which presented its world famous Predjama Castle and Postojna Cave. On the whole, Exclusive Travel provided a select audience (the fair was not open to the public, but by invitation only) of high-income visitors, travel professionals and industry representatives a complete overview of luxury travel and tourism possibilities.

Potential buyers at the fair – Demie Galanou, general manager of Cruiseplan Eurostar; and Vasiliki Kondylarou of CNC International-Dinners Cosmos Club’s planning department Europe – said the nicest thing about the fair was that we met only professionals and we were not overrun by visitors.

Organizers also held prearranged meetings for exhibitors in three meeting halls. Ioanna Tzerachoglou, sales manager for Porto Carras, said she had prearranged 17 meetings but after the first two days of the fair had met with more than 40 potential buyers, answered several direct requests and handed out more than 100 sales kits.

One complaint, however, was concerning the meeting rooms. “I would have preferred a little more privacy in the meeting rooms when discussing with potential clients, and the rooms could have had a much warmer atmosphere,” said Ms. Tzerachoglou.

“Exclusive Travel 2005” took place at ESKA (Helexpo), Athens, from 21 to 23 January 2005, just at the beginning of the after-Olympic tourism season for Greece and the entire Mediterranean region. It was opened Tourism Development Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos.