East Aegean Isles Top GNTO Promo Agenda

Lesvos. Photo © Roy Pedersen / Shutterstock

Topping its agenda of priority destinations, the Greek National Tourism Organization (GNTO) has planned a series of familiarization (fam) trips in efforts to restore the image of the Eastern Aegean islands, which have suffered damage due to ongoing media coverage of the refugee crisis.

In this direction, on the initiative of Alternate Tourism Minister Elena Kountoura, the GNTO will proceed with fam trips to Lesvos and Samos next week for the “Welcome To” show aired on Turkey’s World Travel Channel, and to Kos on July 25-28, for French tourism bloggers (http://www.hedilya-worldtour.com/, http://www.helloitsvalentine.fr/, http://www.selimniederhoffer.com/,  http://www.chauxmelemonde.com/, http://lesbaroudeurs.fr/) with the aim to explore the wide array of tourism offerings there.

Halki. Photo © leoks / Shutterstock

Meanwhile, Russian journalists and photographers specializing in nautical tourism and yachting will be sailing the islands of Rhodes, Halki, Tilos, Leros, Samos, Nisyros and Kos on July 23-30. Stories are expected to feature in travelinsider.ru, Conde Nast Traveller Russia, sailing and inflight magazines.

The trips are a joint collaboration among local GNTO offices, the South Aegean Region, the North Aegean Region and island municipalities.