MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Exhibitions)

Next year will not be an easy year as the recuperation from the global economic crisis may possibly be sluggish, said the UNWTO’s Secretary General Taleb Rifai on the first day of the eighth annual Tourism and Development Conference of the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises (SETE).

The 25th Philoxenia International Tourism Exhibition, held together with the hotel furnishing exhibition Hotelia, saw trade visitors increase this year by some 28 percent compared to last year’s exhibition as 4,782 trade visitors were counted, the exhibition’s organizer Helexpo said.

Travel and tourism, as an industry, has faced pandemics, natural disasters, escalating fuel prices and 9/11 but one of the World Travel Market’s greatest strengths is its ability to mirror the industry in its many moods, said WTM’s Chairman Fiona Jeffery at the tourism fair’s 30th Anniversary VIP Opening at ExCel in London, UK.

Greece could reap in some one billion euros annually; 14,000 new job positions would open; and the local economies of tourist areas would have a huge increase in income from tourists that arrive to Greek ports by a cruise ship if the cabotage law is lifted, tourism professionals recently agreed.

Professionals of the travel industry are getting ready for their “annual appointment” in Thessaloniki to meet up at the 25th International Tourism Exhibition Philoxenia at the end of this month.

By 2010 two of the four planned diving parks in Greece will be established, announced Tourism Minister Kostas Markopoulos at the conference “Diving Tourism – Present and Future,” organized last month by Greek daily newspaper Apogevmatini.

The effectiveness of the development models of the economy will be analyzed at the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises’ eighth annual Tourism and Development conference scheduled for 19-20 October.

The dynamics of domestic tourism to the benefit of Greek tourism businesses and the general public were highlighted at the third Summer Holidays Expo, held from 28 to 31 May at the Helexpo center in Thessaloniki.

Athens moved up 10 places–from 25th to 15th– in the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) global city ranking for 2008.

Proposed solutions and improvements on technical and substantive issues within the relations of tourism offices and airline companies were discussed recently in Athens at the “Air Services 2009” conference.