Athens and ‘its Islands’ Should be Promoted Together, Says Hotels President

Athens – Attica & Argosaronic Hotel Association President Labrini Karanasiou-Zoulovits.

Athens hoteliers are suggesting the joint promotion of the Greek capital and the nearby islands of the Saronic Gulf, including Aegina, Agistri, Spetses, Hydra and Poros.

The president of the Athens – Attica & Argosaronic Hotel Association, Labrini Karanasiou-Zoulovits, on Thursday proposed for the Greek Tourism Ministry to investigate how Athens and its islands henceforth could be presented as a single destination to international markets.

“I believe that the time has come for us to take a step ‘forward’ for Athens and discuss the way to handle this delicate issue of naming or better promoting the destination with a new name,” Karanasiou-Zoulovits said while speaking during the association’s 53rd annual general assembly.

‘Athens and its islands’

Athens, Greece.

Addressing hoteliers, tourism professionals, government representatives and journalists, the association’s president said that she personally will refer to the Greek capital as “Athens and its islands” from now on.

“I believe that it represents and expresses in the best possible way, this wholeness and timelessness that the destination emits historically, culturally, touristically – and I think the visitor – or prospective visitor – understands it better,” she said while inviting the Greek National Tourism Organization (GNTO) and the Tourism Ministry to take the association’s idea under consideration.

“It is certainly in the hands of the experts – the GNTO, the Tourism Ministry and the state – in terms of the limits of such a marketing intervention… Finding the ideal vocabulary with which we could convey this sense of a single destination to the citizens of the whole world – to the benefit of course of all individual destinations,” Karanasiou-Zoulovits said.

Greek Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni was present at the association’s general assembly and assured that the president’s proposal will be taken under serious consideration.