MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Exhibitions)

The annual conference of travel organization “Virtuoso” was held at the Hotel Grand Bretagne in Athens from February 28 to March 3rd. Members of the elite travel industry, established tour operators, travel agents and providers met in Athens last month to discuss the latest trends, challenges, possibilities and future of luxury travel. The conference was invitation-only with a total capacity of 350 delegates.

The Hellenic Association of Professional Congress Organizers (HAPCO) recently held its fourth annual two-day conference on “The Environment, Synergy and Crisis Management in Conference Tourism” at the Megaron Athens International Conference Centre, where much emphasis was placed on the launch of the new Athens Convention and Visitors Bureau (ACVB) next month.

The first ACTIVETRIP exhibition on new and special forms of tourism was held successfully in Patras from 29 February to 2 March. Some 1,200 visitors, 50 exhibitors and a plethora of regional and tourism representatives from all over Greece took part in the exhibition. The general consensus, according to the organizers, anticipates the exhibition becoming an institution for alternative tourism and the City of Patra.

The Hellenic Association of Professional Congress Organizers recently did a presentation entitled “Meetings, Conferences and Incentives in Greece” at the Nordic travel fair MATKA 2008 held in Helsinki Fair Center (Finland) on 17 to 20 January. HAPCO was officially invited by the Greek National Tourism Organization office for Scandinavian countries in Stockholm, Sweden.

Politicians from all over the world, including Greece, met in Bali, Indonesia, between December 3 and 14 for the United Nations Climate Change Conference. At the conference, secretary general of the World Tourism Organization, Francesco Frangialli, committed the tourism sector to the common cause of climate change response, and linked it closely with the fight against poverty.

The second Tourism & Property Show, organized by media network group Real Travel, is to be held on the 22nd to 24th of this month in Athens, at the Fencing Hall of the Hellenikon Exhibition Center (former West Airport).

The thirty-ninth international tourism industry exhibition Xenia was recently held in Athens under the auspices of the Ministry of Tourism Development and the Greek National Tourism Organization, and was sponsored by Aegean Airlines.

World Travel Market 2007 proved a great success and “broke all records,” according to the organizer, who recently revealed un-audited figures. WTM is a four-day travel industry event held in London annually, which brings together worldwide buyers and sellers from every sector of the industry. The four-day event is organized by Reed Exhibitions, one of the world’s leading organizers of exhibitions and conferences.

Tourism Development Minister Aris Spiliotopoulos presented the world with the new image of Greece at World Travel Market, which was held in London last month. The new slogan and logo for Greece was revealed at the inauguration of the Greek National Tourism Organization stand where Mr. Spiliotopoulos outlined the two stages of the tourism promotion campaign and explained the theory behind it.

The 23rd Philoxenia opened its gates to buyers and sellers from all around the world last month with little different to present compared with previous years. The most significant business event took place on opening day as some 100 hosted buyers from some 30 countries met with exhibitors.