Trade Associations

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 president of the Society of Incentive Travel Executives (SITE), Greek-born and raised Tassos Pappas now of Brussels, called on the incentive specialists in the Greek market to form a Site chapter.

German commuters were wined and dined Greek-style on their country’s railways last month. Organizers hope the taste of Greece will tempt some of the commuters to spend their annual vacation in Greece.

The Rodos Afandou golf course is set to undergo a major redevelopment that is to be funded by the Hellenic Tourism Organisation (EOT). The decision to revamp the course, considered an important element of the island’s effort to develop alternative forms of tourism, was announced after a recent meeting between EOT’s secretary general, Evgenios Yiannakopoulos, and Rodos prefectural authorities.

Greece’s hoteliers have finally accepted rental rooms and apartments as official holiday lodgings and have agreed with the adoption of the “key” category system for rating these lodgings. Owners of rental rooms and apartments, in the meantime, have adopted the unofficial slogan “Holidays with key in hand” ahead of the imminent introduction of the new official rating system.

Members of Greek and Turkish Skal clubs got together in Athens last month to agree on ways in which they can cooperate in the tourism sector. All agreed that “we need peace in the Aegean and for this we need tourism.” They suggested the entire Aegean area be promoted as a tourism destination that includes not only Greece and Turkey but also Israel and Egypt.

Never in its 70 years of history did the Hellenic Association of Travel & Tourism Agents (HATTA) see so many members attend a general assembly as it did last month. Reasons for the strong interest varied.

Prime Minister Costas Simitis expressed a personal interest in Greece’s vital tourism industry at a recent inner cabinet meeting and said he would attend the next session of the national tourism council. Development Minister Evangelos Venizelos relayed the premier’s intentions at a press call and he pointed out that the calling of general elections on April 9 had cleared the political horizon.

On February 7, the Hellenic Association of Travel and Tourism Agents (HATTA) meet at the Athens Chandris hotel for their annual general assembly. Guest speaker at the event will be Michel de Bust, secretary general of ECTAA, which represents the national travel agent associations in the European Union. He will speak on the latest developments in the areas of travel and tourism.

The Association of Greek Tourist Enterprises (SETE) has forwarded a letter to the Hellenic Tourism Organization’s general secretary Evgenios Yiannakopoulos pointing out that the tourism sector can reap enormous benefits from Athens’ hosting of the 2004 Olympics.