Enhancing the Athens Tourism Experience a Ministry Priority

Tourism Minister Vasilis Kikilias met with Athens’ municipal and regional authorities as well as representatives of trade associations.

The operation of shops in the historic center of the Greek capital and ways to enhance the Athens city break tourist experience topped the agenda of talks between Tourism Minister Vasilis Kikilias, municipal and regional authorities, and trade associations.

Kikilias presented the Athens Traders Association and Plaka shop owners with the ministry’s strategy to promote city break holidays, which includes the launch at the end of the month of a relevant campaign to run through to February. 

“We are upgrading the Athens tourism product, strengthening the shops in the historic center of the city,” said Kikilias via his twitter account on Monday.

Athens, Greece. Photo: GTP

The minister also briefed the meeting of new agreements that are expected to boost tourist activity in the Greek capital in the coming year, including a deal with Jet2.com and its sister brand Jet2CityBreaks to operate flights and city breaks to Athens for the first time starting in April 2022.

The UK leisure travel group also agreed to boost the number of airline seats to Greece by 600,000 next year. Additionally, budget carrier easyJet also decided to add 500,000 air passenger seats to Greece.

The Athens Traders Association and Plaka shop owners welcomed the news and called on the minister to proceed with actions that would designate businesses in the Plaka district as “tourist enterprises”.

Meanwhile, according to a decision published in the Government Gazette last year, starting this month, shop owners with businesses in the historic center of Athens have the option to remain open on Sundays. The measure applies to stores in the popular tourist districts of Plaka, Monastiraki and around the Acropolis.