Destinations

Greece’s tourism promotion campaign steams ahead in both Europe and the USA. The first phase of the 60-million-euro campaign has been completed and the second phase is now in full force.

Two of the “Three Tenors” will perform at separate events this summer at Greece’s annual Hellenic Festival, organizers announced last month.

The Colossus of Rhodes will rise again, if ambitious plans by the mayor of Rodos, Yiannis Iatridis, to rebuild the ancient statue come to fruition. Mayor Iatridis said that Cypriot sculptor Nikos Gotziamanis had undertaken both to carry out the project and find funding for it.

The nearby island of Salamina is out to pick up a reputation as a tourism destination. Its mayor, Vangelis Agapiou, says a major campaign is now underway to entice visitors to the island. “Although I don’t expect to see many visitors from abroad, I do expect to see a substantial increase in the number of domestic visitors,” he says.

A step taken last month by the Greek government opens new possibilities for the country’s Ecotourism sector. Ecotourism, a sub-category of sustainable tourism, is considered the fastest growing market in the tourism industry, according to the World Tourism Organization, with an annual growth rate of 5% worldwide and representing 6% of the world gross domestic product, 11.4% of all consumer spending.

The heads of four local authorities surrounding the huge former Olympic sites near the old Athens international airport, which had been earmarked four years ago to become “Europe’s largest” metropolitan park, last month joined forces to express fear that the much of the Hellenikon area would be left to commercial enterprises to exploit.

Seaworld, a new, innovative aquarium, promoted as the largest and most modern in the Mediterranean, opens on Crete early this year. Four thousand sea creatures, currently being kept in fish traps by the Fish Farming Institute, will be transferred to the 32 tanks that are ready at Heraklion.

Olympic installations will remain in the hands of the state and will leave a lasting legacy by making Attica a year-round tourist attraction and by upgrading the quality of life of local residents, Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis said during a recent press call.

The government says it’s in the process of drawing up plans to improve the picture and operation of ports and airports with a view to bolstering the tourism, Deputy Tourism Development Minister Anastassios Liaskos told a recent international conference on transport and technology and their contribution to the tourism industry.

The biggest and what appears to be the best Paralympic Games in history began in style last month as fireworks and illuminations lit up the Olympic Stadium during the opening ceremony.