Event News

With an aim to increase Greek tourism, Royal Olympic Athens hotel and the Hellenic American Chamber of Tourism announced that they would host two familiarization trips (of nine days each) for key U.S. and Canadian travel agents on 15-27 April.

Greece has a “tough” currency and increased labor costs while images recently released have been devastating for the country’s tourism: fires, terrorism attacks, prison escapes and battle scenes on the streets of Athens, stressed Culture and Tourism Minister Pavlos Geroulanos at the 20th Greek Economy Conference of the American Hellenic Chamber of Commerce.

This year HATTA celebrated World Tourism Day by honoring the most important cultural event of the year for Greece: the opening of the new Acropolis Museum. On 28 September HATTA organized a special tour of the new museum for Greek and foreign tourism industry representatives. “We, the people of tourism, must support the cultural richness of our country with all our power,” HATTA’s president Argyro Fili told GTP.

The new distribution platform “Content Inn by Amadeus” has come to Greece to fill the gap in customer demand for quick and easy access to hotel suppliers and other travel services, said Juan Antonio Carrasco, director of markets in Central, Eastern and Southern European (CESE), at a recent presentation in Athens.

The third Athens Classic Marathon Expo, which focuses on running, lifestyle, sports and tourism, health and fitness, is the perfect opportunity to promote Greece as a sports tourism destination, said the Hellenic Athletics Federation (SEGAS) that is organizing the event.

An electronic register of all Greek tourism businesses will be prepared and presented by the end of the year, Tourism Minister Kostas Markopoulos said at a marketing workshop held recently in Chania, Crete, by the Hellenic Hotels Federation.

Greece’s long-awaited inclusion in the U.S. visa waiver program is expected to take place by the end of the year, according to negotiations at the recent summit of the 56-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe that took place on Kerkyra.

While on an official visit to Ankara last month, Tourism Minister Kostas Markopoulos informed his Turkish counterpart, Ertugrul Gunay, of the ministry’s decision to organize the “8th Greek-Turkish Tourism Forum” in October in Greece, with the participation of Greek and Turkish businessmen and tour operators.

An initiative taken for the first time in Greece by an embassy that represents one of the most developed tourism countries in the world deserves many congratulations, said Nikos Angelopoulos, president of the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises, in reference to a recent workshop organized by the French Embassy in Greece.

The profile of today’s visitor and ways of approaching the Greek tourist were analyzed last month in Chalkidiki at a workshop organized by the Hellenic Hotels Federation and the Halkidiki Hotel Association.