Greek Destinations Urged to Promote Conference and Meetings Tourism

Nature, sea, culture and city tourism are the four pillars on which the effort of the Tourism Development Ministry to enrich the Greek tourism product rests, said the ministry’s special secretary, Haris Kokkosis, during the 2nd International Meetings Industry Conference (IMIC 2006), on “Marketing Destinations and their Venues,” held here last month.

Mr. Kokkosis told the delegates, who had arrived from all over Greece, that apart from the tourism promotion run centrally by the tourism ministry, each destination should develop its own communication strategy to highlight its strong points.

The president of the Hellenic Association of Travel and Tourist Agencies, Yiannis Evangelou, referred specifically to the success a destination can enjoy by developing its own conference product. He stressed that the ministry should promote the creation of a National Conference Attraction Office, following the example set by other countries with advanced conference tourism.

He stressed, however, that for any sort of advertising promotion about conferences to be effective it should be made independently and not as part of the country’s main campaign.

The head of the Attica Hotel Association, George Tsakiris, spoke about the great scope for further growth that the Athens region has to develop conference tourism, particularly after the huge investments in hotel installations before the 2004 Olympics. He urged government to assist in the pressing need to develop a big conference center in the Athens-Attica region.