Greece Holds Low Profile Online

Online advertising can offer the best exposure for Greek tourism as it is international, targeted and efficient concluded the MSN Travel and Tourism Day conference that took place recently in Athens.

The conference, titled “Tourism: Destination-Internet Advertising,” enlightened tourism professionals on trends and developments in the field of Internet advertising.

Geert Hogeveen, Regional Solution Specialist-Microsoft Advertising; Anant Joshi, Director, Partnerships and Sales Engineering-EyeBlaster; Anita Geiger, APS Marketing Lead CEMEA-Microsoft Advertising; and Adda Kirkili, Business Development and Operations Director-ThinkDigital. Ms. Kirkili presented the study of Dr. Sigala and stressed that in regards to the online display of a destination, Greek enterprises tend to operate with a “philosophy of subsidy” to obtain a portal but do not plan for its sustainability and management.

In regards to the reality that surrounds the online marketing of Greek tourist destinations it was mentioned that, although holiday and travel websites are the most researched categories online, Greece seems to turn a blind eye as it obtains a very low percentage when it comes to advertising via the Internet.

Anita Geiger, APS Marketing Lead CEMEA-Microsoft Advertising, whose presentation focused on the understanding of the travel and tourism consumer, gave insight on the power of the Internet and data on the profile of Internet users.

When questioned about Greece, Ms. Geiger replied that there was no available data on online advertising in Greece, as “this country prefers to advertise via classical types of media (newspapers, television, etc.).”

During the conference another topic analyzed was “eBusiness Marketing applied in Greek tourism,” for which the study of Dr. Marianna Sigala, lecturer at the University of the Aegean, was presented.

The study was on “Computer Systems Management and Marketing of Tourist Destinations: International Trends, Current Situation and Prospects in the Greek tourism industry.”

The study emphasized that the development and operation of Destination Management Systems (DMS) can substantially support and enhance the competitiveness of tourism destinations and specifically of the small and medium tourism enterprises.

The conference was organized by Thinkdigital and Microsoft Advertising.