Event News

Aegean Airline’s first Pro-Am golf tournament was held last month at the Crete Golf Club in Hersonissos, an 18-hole championship desert course. Competitors for the 36-hole tournament came from 13 countries. Fifty-one teams, comprised of one professional and three amateur players competed for the 70,000 euro prize purse offered for PGA professionals and gift-awards for the amateurs.

At the Association for Greek Tourist Enterprises’ assembly meeting last month, its president, Stavros Andreadis, pointed out that the ministry of tourism development’s role is not as clear as it could be to the public sector in general, and although “coordinated efforts are required for tourism policy to be effective, obstacles are still created by problems stemming from the past.” Prime Minister Karamanlis and Minister of Tourism Development Petralia addressed the assembly as well.

According to Greece’s tourism development minister, Fani Palli-Petralia, this year’s tourism season will be the best we’ve seen in a long time. She added that the common denominator during all discussions held during her recent visit to Washington D.C., during which she addressed the Global Travel and Tourism Summit, organized by the World Travel & Tourism Council, was that “Greece boasts a very good tourism product that has become more competitive in the international market.”

GreecExpo, a showcase of available luxury tourism products in Greece, takes place at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City on April 8 and 9 of this year.

Greece’s first-ever air show will be held in September at the Tanagra air base north of Athens, the Ministry of Defense announced last month.

For the fourth year in a row, the island of Poros hosted its international Yachting Symposium. The annual event has been held on the island every May to promote Greek marine tourism. Parallel with the symposium was a presentation of the deluxe Greek yachts available for charter.

With numerous successes under its belt in organizing a various boat races, the island of Corfu on July 2 takes on the task of organizing and presenting the Panhellenic Inflatable Boat Races.

The recent annual Budapest Spring Festival has developed into a popular international cultural event with more than one-third of its audience arriving from abroad to attend the various presentations. The two-week program this year, which is the 25th year for the event, included an impressive variety of 170 presentations that attracted audiences of more than 100,000. Of these, about one-third came from the European Union, including many from Greece, and North America. During the two-week period, Malev Hungarian Airlines, the national carrier, and Wizz, the low-cost Hungarian-Polish carrier, both operated daily flights from Athens, all of which were fully booked.

Last month Athens was the venue for the semi-annual meeting of executives and country representatives of Best Western International. The last time such a meeting was held in Greece was in 2001 (Crete). During the meet, Carol Marriott, president and managing director of Best Western Greece signed a new 10-year representation agreement with Best Western International’s president, David Kong.

If there is one thing certain as a result of a country holding the Olympic Games it’s that conference tourism to that country increases substantially over a five-year period. But excluding that distinct possibility, professional conference organizers insist that the conference sector remains one the most dynamic of the Greek tourism industry.