MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Exhibitions)

The capital’s biggest and most modern exhibition center, Expo Athens, hosts the 11th Panorama Tourism Exhibition this year from May 4 to 7 with more exhibition space than ever before.

In a move to increase Chinese tourism in Greece, 50 Chinese tourism professionals were invited to meet with Greek colleagues last month by the Hellenic Association of Travel and Tourist Agencies.

Beijing’s International Travel and Tourism Market welcomed 448 hand-picked hosted buyers from the top tour operators and travel agencies in China to do business and network with international tourism professionals.

Athens-the Wonder of Revival was the theme of the 37th annual convention of the International Federation of Women’s Travel Organizations (IFWTO) held in Athens last month-in honor of the organization’s first ever convention held in this city.

Greece, for the first time, bathed in the limelight as the partner country at the 40th global tourism expo ITB held last month in Berlin. Greece hosted the opening event and reception for over 5,000 guests with a rich artistic program that included singers Alkistis Protopsalti and Helena Paparizou.

Minister of Tourism Development, Fani Palli-Petralia, during her opening speech at last month’s conference on congress tourism said that the private sector was accountable for the delay in creating a Metropolitan Congress Center. She explained that over a ten-month period, while she was responsible for the Olympic facilities, she awaited submission of a proposal for the use of the Tae Kwon Do facility as a convention center from congress organizers and other tourism enterprises, but received none.

Tourism is Our Future was the title of a conference organized by the Alpine Center and Kariera SA last month to discuss career opportunities and trends in the hotel industry. Speakers included representatives from leading hotels and the Greek Association for Tourist Enterprises.

Investment in Greece’s tourism industry is projected to rise by an average annual rate of 5.4 percent until 2016, according to a study by the World Travel & Tourism Council. The study’s authors also estimated that the Greek tourism industry uses a mere 15% of its potential.

Nature, sea, culture and city tourism are the four pillars on which the effort of the Tourism Development Ministry to enrich the Greek tourism product rests, said the ministry’s special secretary, Haris Kokkosis, during the 2nd International Meetings Industry Conference (IMIC 2006), on “Marketing Destinations and their Venues,” held here last month.

New thoughts and expectations on the future of luxury travel to Greece were expressed at last month’s Exclusive Travel fair held at the Helexpo Palace exhibition center in Athens.