Awards

The annual Airline Marketing Workshop, organized for the seventh consecutive year by Athens International Airport (AIA), was highlighted by the special awards presented by AIA to the airlines that recorded the highest passenger development in 2006, in recognition of their contribution to the airport`s overall record growth of 15.1 million passengers, a result surpassing the 2005 volumes by a significant 5.6%.

Blue Star Ferries was voted “Passenger Line of the Year” at the Lloyd’s List Greek Shipping Awards in recognition of its responsibility, consistency, reliability and integrity. Blue Star Ferries’ managing director, Michalis Sakellis, received the award at a ceremony in Athens last month.

Improving the quality of Greek tourism is goal behind the “Philoxenia Tourism Awards” to be granted for the first time at this year’s Philoxenia tourism fair being held November 16 – 19.

Rodos Park Suites Hotel, a member of the Small Luxury Hotels of the World, received the Hellenic Hotelier Chamber’s award for the best city hotel in Greece.

Qatar Airways earned a string of accolades in the annual Skytrax awards, rising to sixth best airline in the world from eighth place last year.

At a ceremony last month, the Hellenic Hotel Chamber granted nine awards for significant contributions to tourism in Greece, in an award program first started in 2004. This year, a special committee selected individuals, businesses, initiatives and hotels that regardless of their size are judged as models for the industry that open new routes for Greek enterprises and tourism to follow.

Local SkyTeam members were awarded for their comprehensive powerpoint presentation created for their annual agency workshop held in 2003. Head office said the presentation was so professional that it was adopted as the basis for the 2004 and 2005 SkyTeam market presentations held around the world.

Tourism Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos presented the HATTA annual travel agency brochure awards during Philoxenia 2005.

Yet another international award, the Verkehrsbuero Travel Award, was picked up recently by the Grecotel Mykonos Blu for its superb quality of services in the category of Verkehrsbuero Reisen’s top hotels of the world.

The European Regions Airline Association last month presented Greece’s Aegean Airlines the Silver Award Airline of the Year 2004/5. Aegean Airlines’ general manager, Dimitris Gerogiannis, accepted the award during a prestigious ceremony held in conjunction with the associations’ annual general assembly held in Gothenburg, Sweden, with 600 international press and airline delegates.