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Bookings in four- and five-star hotels of the Greek capital in August recorded a slight increase of 1.13 percent over the same month last year, according to data released recently by the Athens-Attica Hotel Association.

Athens experienced a 4.67 percent decrease in international arrivals in September compared to the same month in 2010, according to recent figures released by the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises (SETE).

The Halkidiki Hotel Association recently organized a four-day fam trip to Chalkidiki and Thessaloniki for gay German journalists in an attempt to approach the gay travel market.

Greek tourism will be promoted in Athens this coming spring via the uniqueness of Greece’s natural beauty, significant cultural wealth and deep religious tradition at Nexus, the first International Cultural, Religious and Pilgrimage Tourism Exhibition.

Initiatives for the Greek economy based on consensual approaches and a broader political, social and economic cooperation aimed at a recovery and an exit from the crisis will be analyzed at the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises’ (SETE) 10th tourism and development conference.
The theme of this year’s conference is “Tourism: a national case” and will take place at the Divani Caravel hotel 31 October-1 November.

Eight Greek coasts that had been honored with the quality “Blue Flag” award in June were dropped last month from the 2011 list, according to the Hellenic Society for the Protection of Nature.
Inspections revealed that coastal managers had failed to maintain the required cleanliness of the beaches, protect the environment and provide the necessary services to bathers.

“Once again Greek tourism was caught unaware by the imposition of the new fee, this time to Kerkyra Port that welcomes cruise ships, effective as of 1 September,” the Hellenic Association of Travel and Tourist Agencies (HATTA) said last month in a press release.

Greece this year fell another seven places in the rankings of 142 countries from 83rd place to 90th in the Global Competitiveness Report 2011-2012, released by the World Economic Forum last month.
Greece remains the lowest-ranked country of the European Union and is below Georgia and Lebanon and many African and Balkan countries.

“Gay and lesbian tourists, who for years flocked to the islands of Mykonos and Lesbos, have removed Greece from their list of favorite destinations because of discrimination,” a survey by …

Medical tourism has been a fast growing sector worldwide over the last 15 years and while Greece has potential to compete in the rapidly growing ‘middle market’ of medical tourism, the country lacks a comprehensive national sector growth strategy, according to a recent study by the Mckinsey and Company consulting firm.