Halkidiki Gets International Exposure Through Fam Trips

Halkidiki has hosted more than 35 journalists and travel agents from six different countries, from April to June, as part of the efforts of the Halkidiki Tourism Organization (HTO) to promote the region’s destinations, history and traditions.

Journalists from Italy’s Dove magazine.

Counting the organization of ten familiarization (fam) trips in the last two months, the organization has hosted journalists from Holland’s Vogue magazine; Italy’s TV stations Rai 5 and Rai 3, as well as the Russia 24 channel among other media outlets.

The organization also hosted six American journalists and gave them the grand tour around Halkidiki, Μount Athos, Vergina and Thessaloniki. According to an announcement, the organization is focusing on attracting more visitors from the American market, since the direct flights between the U.S., Athens and Istanbul and then to the Thessaloniki airport, have eased the access of US travelers to Halkidiki.

Furthermore, British journalist Elisabeth Finney, from the UK’s Boat International Media, visited Halkidiki in May and took a cruise around the little islands of Diaporos on Bourbourou bay.

During May 18-21, a delegation of the Association of Turkish Travel Agents (TURSAB) Regional Chapter of Eastern Thrace, headed by its president Orhan Cebi, visited Kassandra, Sithonia and the island of Ammouliani. Last year Halkidiki welcomed 3,500 Turkish visitors and HTO is aiming to increase that number this year.

Filming of documentary Geo Halkidiki by Rai3.

Italian journalist Heidi Busetti and her family, representing the online family travel magazine www.familygo.eu, visited various locations in Halkidiki in a family-oriented trip organized by HTO.

Meanwhile, two Italian journalists from Dove magazine (70,000 copies/month) visited Halkidiki as part of a trip around Greece, which also included stops at the destinations of Athens, Meteora and Mount Olympus. Their travel feature on Halkidiki will be published next summer.

Furthermore, production crews working with Italian TV stations Rai 5 and Rai 3 recently wrapped up the shooting of the documentaries Wild Greece and Geo Halkidiki, respectively. The crews had visited Ammouliani, Ancient Stagira, Amphipoli and the Kerkini Lake, among other areas.