Destinations

The Athens Tourism and Economic Development Company (ATEDCo) in late July launched “This is MY Athens,” a new free tourist service that welcomes visitors to the Greek capital and promotes cultural exchange between locals and travelers.

Culture and Tourism Minister Pavlos Geroulanos last month approved a three-month extension of a campaign launched by the Athens-Attica Hotel Association and online travel company Expedia.com.
The Greek National Tourism Organization will finance the extension of the campaign.

“The upgrade and unification of Plato’s Academy is a project that has been delayed greatly… Plato’s Academy is a source of wealth for Athens and it must be promoted as such,” Culture and Tourism Minister Pavlos Geroulanos said recently.

Some 20 percent of bookings to Greece were canceled for the mid August-October period during the three-week strike of Greek taxi owners and drivers, press reports said last month.
Tourism professionals stressed the taxi strike cost Greek tourism 250,000-300,000 bookings and would prevent potential tourists from visiting the country next year.

Mykonos and Santorini were included among the top tourism destinations in the world last month, according to reader surveys of two major U.S. travel magazines.

“The Special Olympics World Summer Games Athens 2011 delivered multiple benefits to Greece that included some 300,000 overnight stays, thousands of sea and air travel arrivals and increased tourism traffic,” president of the Special Olympics Organizing Committee Athens 2011, Joanna Despotopoulou, said last month.

The tourism image of Laganas, Zakynthos, and the resort’s notorious reputation was questioned last month after a 19-year-old British tourist was stabbed to death and four other holidaymakers injured following a brawl with a local taxi driver.

Culture and Tourism Minister Pavlos Geroulanos last month appealed to Greek taxi drivers to not hit tourism during their mobilizations, as “such protests do not help the country and do not help tourism.”

“Greece is a country that offers an excellent tourism product and this should not be tarnished in any way,” Culture and Tourism Minister Pavlos Geroulanos said in a statement recently in regards to the impact violent events in Athens had left on tourism during the 28-29 June protests.

Only a few days after the violent anti-austerity protests that took place 28-29 June at Syntagma Square, central Athens, some 8,000 booking cancelations in 20 of Athens hotels were recorded, Athens-Attica Hoteliers Association President Yiannis Retsos told journalists last month.