New GNTO Offices for North Amercia

Tourism Development Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos announced a major Greek tourism promotion drive in the U.S. market on the first day of a tourism workshop organized by the Hellenic-American Chamber of Tourism. “The U.S. is a high-priority market for us, especially now that we are launching our new tourism strategy,” he said.

He added that he would soon visit the USA, starting with Los Angeles to establish cooperation with the Hollywood film industry, before heading off to New York for a tourism fair with Greece as the honored country. “We are proceeding fast with the opening tourism offices where we did not have any before, such as in Miami, Los Angeles and Chicago,” he said.

The Hellenic-American Chamber of Tourism, in association with Martakis Tourism Consultants, organized the tourism workshop themed “Greece-U.S.” with the participation of U.S. tourism companies whose annual turnover exceeds $10 million. The workshop’s main aims were to attract American tourists to Greece through targeted promotion and substantial contacts with people who form or greatly affect the preferences and trends of the U.S. tourism market. Participants included travel agencies, hotels, coach-, car- and boat-rental companies, and airlines and cruise companies both from Greece and the U.S.

Separately, Mr. Avramopoulos sent an invitation to the Arab business world to boost tourism investments in Greece. He made a visit to Bahrain and Qatar after invitations by Bahrain’s heir to the throne, Seikh Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, and the Emir of Qatar, Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani.

It was announced that from the end of March QatarAir will link Athens with Qatar, while Gulfair will increase flights between Athens and Bahrain. Greek tourism offices will open in both countries.