Trade Associations

Many Greeks chose to stay home this past holiday season and avoided traditional Christmas and New Year domestic destinations as travel within the country declined some 25 percent, Yiorgos Telonis, president of the Hellenic Association of Travel and Tourist Agencies (HATTA) told GTP last month.

The Tourism Development Company (ETA) last month announced an open tender for the six-year leasing of the refectory of the former border station in Promachona.

Thessaloniki recorded the most losses in foreign arrivals and turnover during the first ten months of 2010, Aristotelis Thomopoulos, president of the Hotel Association of Thessaloniki, said recently.

The first “National Council of Gastronomy,” held under the auspices of the Greek National Tourism Organization, will take place at the 6th HO.RE.CA. scheduled for 3-6 February at the ExpoAthens exhibition center in Anthousa, eastern Attica.

Greek breakfast will be established in all hotels of the country as a start of the promotion of Greek cuisine as one of the most key representative forms of Greek tourism, Hellenic Chamber of Hotels representative, Yiorgos Pittas, said recently.

The Mediterranean diet’s placement on the list of UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage opens horizons not only for the broadcasting of Greece’s local culture and traditions but also for the surfacing of Greek products and local food of the islands and regions, the Culture and Tourism Ministry said in a recent press release.

“The Hellenic Association of Professional Congress Organizers (HAPCO) welcomes the deputy minister’s announcement for the creation of new convention bureaus in various regions of Greece and the establishment of a conference tourism committee,” HAPCO’s President Dinos Astras told GTP.

“The European markets are receiving optimistic messages in regards to the recovery of Greek tourism,” President of the European Travel Agents and Tour Operators Associations (ECTAA) Irene Gueorguieva said at a dinner held during the 102nd ECTAA Biannual Meeting in Athens last month.

The development of diving tourism is one of the top priorities of the Culture and Tourism Ministry within the framework of promoting alternative forms of tourism, Deputy Culture and Tourism Minister George Nikitiadis said at the “Biodiversity and Diving Tourism in the Greek Seas” conference held in Athens in late November.

The Greek National Tourism Organization (GNTO) and the Athens International Airport (AIA) signed a memorandum of cooperation last month that aims to utilize the potential of air transport, through coordinated joint actions, as a basic axis for the development of tourism products and high quality services.