Trade Associations

Greek hoteliers are planning to design a new tourism package, gain a leading role in luxury tourism and attract visitors of high income, the Greek press said last month.

The Greek National Tourism Organization (GNTO) saved some 62 million euros last year as its operating expenses in 2010 were reduced by 36.85 percent compared to the year before, according to an announcement the organization made last month.

“Athens Rainbow Week could be a magnet for gay tourists abroad with the appropriate exposure and promotion of the event, from both international media and travel agencies/tour operators but we can not say that such a promotional targeted effort has been made,” according to the president of the Hellenic Association of Travel and Tourist Agencies (HATTA) Giorgos Telonis.

Within the framework of the Hellenic Association of Travel and Tourist Agencies’ (HATTA) annual general assembly, the association announced its new Board of Directors.

The president of the outgoing Board of Directors of the Hellenic Association of Travel and Tourist Agencies (HATTA), Yiorgos Telonis, opened the association’s annual general assembly last month with good news for the staff of travel agencies and tour buses.

The Greek Government’s support to new accommodation investments in Attica and Thessaloniki causes unfair competition at the expense of hotels that already exist, the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels recently said in a letter to Regional Development and Competitiveness Minister Mihalis Chrysochoidis in regards to the new development law.

“The Indian market right now is untouched but it’s a tourism source for our country that has significant potential,” according to Maya Tsokli, Member of the Greek Parliament, in charge of PASOK’s parliament group on tourism.

A tourism cooperation protocol aimed to tighten the ties between Greece and Israel was signed last month in Athens between Culture and Tourism Pavlos Geroulanos and his Israeli counterpart, Stas Misezhnikov.

Athens’ hotel occupancy in February caused optimism, but also concern, to hoteliers as overnights in five- and four-star hotels recorded an increase while two- and three-star hotels saw a significant decrease.

The Greek tourism sector last month saw changes in the leaderships of the country’s key tourism organizations with Yiannis Retsos taking over the chairmanship of the Hellenic Federation of Hoteliers.