Israel Tour Operators Choose Greece

IMTM 2016 – GNTO Secretary General Dimitris Tryfonopoulos and Israel Tourism Minister Yariv Levin at the Greek stand.

Leading tour operators of Israel are planning to have Greece as the venue for their annual conference this autumn, according to an announcement by the Greek Tourism Ministry on Thursday.

The decision was made during this year’s International Mediterranean Tourism Market (IMTM), which ran February 9-10 at the TLV Convention Center in Tel Aviv.

During the exhibition, the secretary general of the Greek National Tourism Organisation (GNTO), Dimitris Tryfonopoulos, had a very fruitful meeting with Israel’s Tourism Minister Yariv Levin, General Secretary of Tourism Halevy Amir and leading tour operators of the country.

Discussions focused on the plans of Israeli tour operators to develop new themed travel packages to Greece that will focus on the country’s gastronomy, environment, open door activities and city breaks and introduce new destinations and services.

According to the Tourism Ministry, plans are being made for Greece to host the annual conference of the Israeli tour operators this autumn.

Israeli tourism officials foresee Greece as the preferred destination of travellers this year over other destinations.

“This further strengthens the flight program of Greek and Israeli air carriers to Athens and other Greek airports and the launch of additional charter flights to Greece”, the tourism ministry said in an announcement.

The GNTO attends Israel’s IMTM expo every year, representing Greece with its own stand. This year it aimed to further strengthen the arrivals of Israeli tourists to the Greek islands and the mainland throughout the year.

Prior to this year’s IMTM expo, Alternate Tourism Minister Elena Kountoura and her Israeli counterpart Yariv Levin signed a memorandum of cooperation during her visit to Jerusalem within the framework of the Greece-Israel High-Level Cooperation Council in late January.

According to the memorandum, Greece and Israel will strengthen tourism ties with joint initiatives as well as working together to increase the tourist flow to new markets.