Destinations

Prefect of Grevena Dimosthenis Kouptsidis recently presented the new website of the prefecture authority of Grevena.

Greek island Ai Stratis won the government “competition,” announced by Development Minister Kostis Hatzidakis, to become the country’s first “green island” that will feature large-scale infrastructure for green energy, such as photovoltaic systems and wind farms.

The competitive advantages of Athens can be found in this year’s edition of the Association of British Travel Agents Members’ Handbook, according to the Athens Tourism & Economic Development Company (ATEDCO).

The international economic crisis is expected to cause a 25 to 40 percent drop in tourism traffic to Rethymno, Crete, as countries such as the U.K. and Germany are shying away to cheaper non-euro destinations, say the island’s tour operators.

Many cross-border cultural resources in the Rodopi Mountains that remain unexploited to date could lead to numerous positive results in the fields of economy and tourism, according to a recent study by the Regional Department of Thrace of the Technical Chamber of Greece.

Athens was recently promoted as a destination for events, meetings and incentives to more than 30 countries of Europe, North and South America, Asia and Australia by the Athens Convention Bureau (ACB), which participated for the first time at the global Meetings & Incentive Exhibition EIBTM in Barcelona, Spain.

A program contract was signed recently in Xanthi for the tourism development of the Egnatia Odos motorway and approved by 11 prefectural councils of Thrace, Macedonia and Epirus.

The prefecture and the Local Authorities Union of Lefkada held a press conference recently where the prospects of tourism development for the island in 2009 were discussed.

The prefect of Grevena, Dimosthenis Kouptsidis, recently signed the “grant agreement” for the Pindos-Grevena project, which entered the European Union’s LIFE program and will be implemented throughout the Grevena prefecture from 2009 to 2011.

The 43rd International Children’s Games in 2009 has been officially taken on by the City of Athens as an agreement was signed recently between the Mayor of Athens Nikitas Kaklamanis and the president of the International Children’s Games (ICG) Committee, Torsten Rasch.