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Only a few days after the violent anti-austerity protests that took place 28-29 June at Syntagma Square, central Athens, some 8,000 booking cancelations in 20 of Athens hotels were recorded, Athens-Attica Hoteliers Association President Yiannis Retsos told journalists last month.

While the Greek capital counted losses last month in bookings and revenue due to violent protests at Syntagma Square in late June that resulted to some 20,000 cancelations in 21 central hotels in Athens, tourism traffic for the rest of Greece showed positive signs.

The Culture and Tourism Ministry will upgrade 169 museums and archaeological sites, the Greek press said last month.
According to the revamp scheme and a time schedule set by the ministry, 20 museums and archaeological sites should be completed by the end of this summer while the remaining 149 will go up to the A1 category over the next three years.

“We are very pleased that Athens is one of the six destinations of our summer program… Transavia.com will offer travel to Amsterdam at a reasonable and attractive price, accompanied by a high level of service,” the commercial director of Dutch budget carrier transavia.com, William Hondius, said during a press conference in Athens in late June.

The need to promote tourism investment and increase competitiveness in Greece to face the economic crisis was underlined by tourism professionals and experts at the “Tourism Investment Conference: Focus on Greece,” held in Athens last month.

Visitors to Athens are now offered additional assistance to get around the city as the Athens Tourism and Economic Development Company (ATEDCo) launched two new info-points last month in centrally located spots: the intersection of Amalias Avenue and Dionysiou Areopagitou and the cruise ship arrival terminal at the Piraeus Port Authority.

Amphitrion Group of Companies, Greece’s representative for Princess Cruises, hosted an event in late May and presented the Ruby Princess to Greek media representatives while it docked in the Piraeus Port.

Kalymnos, the sponge diver’s island in the Dodekanissos complex, will become the meeting point for free diving fans this month.

“Last year 148,532 Greek tourists visited Spain and left behind 158 million euros in revenue for the country,” Arturo Claver, the director of new markets of Turespana (Spanish Tourism Organization), said at a media briefing in Athens last month. Mr. Klaver said by 2015 Turespana wants to attract 200,000 Greeks to Spain.

Greece ranked second place on the Blue Flag quality award list among 41 countries but with 34 beaches short compared to 2010, according to information recently provided by the Hellenic Society for the Protection of Nature.