General Events & Happenings

The City of Athens and non-governmental network The World of Athens recently launched an international online competition, whose theme is Athens’ benches. The competition’s aim is to improve the quality of life in the Greek capital.

At the start of the new decade Greece literally starred in Harrods in London, United Kingdom, at a time when some 3.5 million shoppers visited the department store during the holidays and the discount season.

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.

Marfin Investment Group will continue to place public interest above short-term business interests for as long as Greece is tested by the crisis, said the company’s President Andreas Vgenopoulos during the official inauguration ceremony of Olympic Air held at the company’s technical base at Athens International Airport.

SkyTeam, the global airline alliance that partners 10 members and three associate carriers, celebrated its ninth year with a beach party at Astir Beach in Vouliagmeni.

The Guinness Book of Records last month officially entered two fossil mastodon tusks found in Milia, Grevena at 5.02 metres in length and dating back three million years as the largest ever found.

Qatar Airways was the main sponsor of the South African gastronomy festival that took place last month in Athens-based Metropolitan hotel.

ANEK Lines recently held the “Recycling… at top speed” event at the Piraeus Port and attracted hundreds of people of all ages who recycled plastic, glass, metal and other packaging.

The Greek claim for the return of the 2,500-year-old Parthenon marbles from the British Museum in London typified the official opening of the New Acropolis Museum on 20 June.

Azerbaijan’s tourism market offers opportunities for tourism and business partnerships, according to members of the Hellenic Association of Travel and Tourist Agencies (HATTA) who attended a familiarization tour in Azerbaijan on 22-28 June.