Destinations

Greek and Turkish Cypriots recently reopened Ledra Street, a major crossing in the divided Cypriot capital of Nicosia. Local officials declared Ledra Street, which stood as a symbol to the island’s partition, open. It was then closed again for a couple of hours by the Greek Cypriots, after what they called an illegal Turkish Cypriot police patrol only to be shortly re-opened on mediation by United Nations officials.

Tourism Development Minister Aris Spiliotopoulos recently signed a memorandum of cooperation with Mayor of Ancient Olympia Giorgos Aidonis and National Metsovian Polytechnic University Rector Konstantinos Moutzouris to launch a pan-Hellenic student competition for the design of a new entrance to the town of Ancient Olympia.

Athens officially announced it would host the 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games planned for June 25th to July 4th. Present at the event held at Athens Concert Hall were President of the Hellenic Republic Karolos Papoulias, members of the Greek parliament, 38 ambassadors to Greece as well as athletes and supporters of the Special Olympics movement. The World Games are expected to unite some 7,500 athletes from more than 170 countries.

More than 60 hearts sponsored by the business community and painted or sculptured by established or upcoming artists and eminent local personalities have been strategically displayed in specific locations around the city of Athens and will remain there until the 19th of March. The fiberglass, metal and wooden hearts grace several Metro stations, Syntagma Square and Ermou Avenue, Technopolis and many other key points so that according to the organizers, “We can admire them, we can love them, we can judge them, we can touch them and they will touch us with their sensitivity and their messages; strolling by, we will fancy them, we will stop to take a picture of them and we will look for them throughout the city.”

Mayor of Thessaloniki Vassilios Papageorgopoulos recently announced the municipality of Thessaloniki would take part in the European Union “Open Air Museum” project. The project is part of the Interreg IIIB Medocc program and is 80 percent funded by the European Union and 20 percent by the ministry of economy and finance. This project, according to the mayor of Thessaloniki, “constitutes evidence of the progress made with regard to the realization of European programs and the utilization of vital European Union funding.”

The government of the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E) officially announced its decision to establish a United Arab Emirates embassy in Athens. To date the U.A.E embassy had its headquarters in Rome.

Thessaloniki Convention & Visitors Bureau (TCVB) recently revealed statistics that show Thessaloniki saw a 25 percent increase in conferences compared with 2006. In 2007 TCVB recorded 224 conferences, compared with 179 in 2006, 131 conferences in 2005 and 115 in 2004.

Some 100,000 Greek tourists picked Cyprus as their holiday destination in the first three quarters of 2007. According to official statistics presented by the Cyprus Tourism Organization (CTO), there was 15 percent more tourism movement from Greece to Cyprus during this period compared with the same period in 2006. This places the Greek market in the third place after the British and Russia market.

The recent fires in Greece have destroyed over 1,900,000 hectares of land, claimed over 60 lives and destroyed dozens of villages. The loss of value of a number of tourism-related companies stocks on the days of the fires show how, according to the international press, the fires can directly affect tourism in Greece. Presently, according to economists, it is difficult to calculate of the long term effects of the fires on the tourism sector, which is one of the most important sources for Greece’s GDP.

The Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts selected Greece as its first location in Europe. The company anticipates the creation of two luxury resorts, on the island of Santorini and Pylos of Messinia, under its management by 2009.