MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Exhibitions)

Tourist arrivals from the USA to Greece are expected to rise further this year, boosted by the addition of flights to and from Athens by two major American carriers, Continental and US Airways, an Athens International Airport official told a recent conference held in Athens.

From 18 to 21 May 2007 the first international exhibition on tourist property and holiday homes, “Tourism & Property 2007,” will open its doors at the Hellenikon exhibition space (the former Athens East Airport). This is the first such tourist real estate exhibition to be held in Greece.

ITB Berlin, which takes place from 7 to 11 March 2007, expects this year’s fair to top even the successful 2006 fair. “Compared with last year the number of applications received for the ITB Berlin 2007 remains at a high level,” according to the director of the ITB, David Ruetz. “In its 41st year the leading trade show for the international travel industry continues to provide a concentrated display of the current trends in this sector from all over the world, and is still attracting new exhibitors.”

Spain and Turkey are considered Greece’s main international competitors by Greek hoteliers due to their lower prices and better promotion by tourism organizations reported an EFG Eurobank study of hotel enterprises throughout Greece carried out August through October 2006.

Last month, the Second General Assembly and Annual Congress of the European Federation of the Associations of PCOs was held at the Helexpo Congress and Exhibition Centre in Athens.

The International Tourism Salon – Athens 2006, the first attempt to establish a much-needed truly international tourism exhibit in the country’s capital city, did relatively well and received strong support from Greece’s leading tourism organizations.

The World Travel Market (WTM) held in London last month was the perfect venue to present Greece’s new advertising campaign with the message “Explore your senses in Greece.”

Aristotelis Thomopoulos, president of Helexpo, the organizer of the Philoxenia International Tourism Exhibition, says this year’s fair, the twenty-second, saw an increase in visitors and exhibitors (additional exhibitors this year included those to the new special section for spa products, which was added to the Hotelier pavilion).

The purchase of shared leisure real estate is expected to double in the next five years, with the main markets being Europe, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific was the key message of the third annual European conference on leisure real estate held in Athens last month.

Litsa Papathanassi from Rodos was elected as the new president of Skal International during the 67th Skal International World Congress held in Pattaya, Thailand last month. This is only the second time in the organization’s 72-year-history, that a woman president was elected.