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Greece has launched an effort to bring back into operation “Axis 10” – the shortest land link to Europe. As part of this initiative, within the next two months Greek intercity trains will depart from Thessaloniki and pass through Skopje, Belgrade, Zagreb, Ljubljana and Salzburg with Munich as the final destination.

The northern Greek prefecture of Pieria plans to spend a total of 153 million drachmas to participate at all major tourism exhibitions that take place this year.

With a pavilion of 800 square meters that hosted some 60 Greek tourism enterprises, Greece stood out as one of the big stars at this year’s ITB Berlin tourism fair. According to the 60-plus exhibitors from here, Greece will welcome a record number of German visitors this year.

Festival Cruises, after launching its new Mistral cruise vessel last summer, ordered another two vessels at a cost of 340 billion drachmas. And that’s just the beginning. The line expects to double its fleet to eight by 2004.

Strintzis Lines, on March 31, accepted its newest super-fast ultra-modern ferry the Blue Star Ithaki from the Korean shipyard Daewoo Heavy Industries. The new vessel will be the first of its type to ply Greek coastal waters.

Attica Enterprises, the holding company of Greek coastal ferry line Superfast Ferries, continues its buying spree with an order for yet another two new super-fast vessels. Last month, the Greek ferry line placed an order for the new ships from the German shipyard Flender Werft. The order includes an option for two sister vessels.

Greece’s domestic tourism fair, Tourism Panorama, expands this year to include participation from the international arena. Organizer Kappa exhibitions expects participation from countries such us Tunisia, Malaysia, Turkey and Libya, which changes its tourism policy and now attempts to entice visitors from Europe. Kappa says the inclusion of these countries is the first step in its gradual process to bring the fair up to international status.

A few years back, some Greek gastronomists created the Center for the Preservation and Promotion of Traditional Greek Gastronomy. Today, one of the center’s most successful projects created is the “Archestratos” program, named after an ancient Greek poet who scribed the Greek dishes he had tasted while traveling throughout the country. Through this program, the wealth of traditional Greek gastronomy is taught, experienced and promoted within the marketplace.

An association made up of Greek women in the tourism profession recently decided to create a Greek tourism museum somewhere within the central Athens area.

The Jewish Museum of Greece, considered the fourth in importance throughout Europe, hosts some 7,000 artifacts of historical and religious importance. And after its move to new quarters, the museum doubled its annual number of visitors.