Evangelos Stavropoulos

President,
Greek Union of Air Travel Agencies

Philoxenia 2009 greeting.

Every country that wants to be recognized as a major player in the worldwide tourism market needs to prove its ability to organize successful events; must always find ways to promote its offers to travel professionals; and should host at least one successful travel fair per year.

All travel fairs are valuable tools and permit the creation of strong cooperations among companies from around the world while they provide valuable benefits to the host country.

Philoxenia is a worldwide known exhibition that during the past years has tried hard to upgrade the provided services to both exhibitors and visitors.

The emphasis given to trade professionals creates an ideal environment to meet new or established partners from around the world, to network and arrange new deals with them. At the same time worldwide travel professionals have an opportunity to obtain hands-on experience with the country, the people and the services.

As a result they gain valuable knowledge to promote Greece and create new packages and products.

Especially during the time of an economic crisis we must embrace all opportunities and continue to invest heavily in order to better capitalize the gains once the crisis passes.

Philoxenia is a vast opportunity for all of us to present our products and offerings to a diverse audience of travel professionals; educate them in regards to Greece; and sign new deals with them.

I hope that Philoxenia will continue to improve and become more interesting as this would result to the promotion of the tourism product of our country and the efforts of Greek travel agents.