London was first stop for the City of Athens Convention and Visitors Bureau (ACVB) roadshow last week. Several of the bureau’s stakeholders joined senior association organisers and core PCO representative guests at the Hilton Park Lane for an event highlighting the developments in the Greek capital’s business tourism offer.
Guests heard that five million visitors are expected in Athens during the course of 2017, many taking part in conferences and corporate meetings.
The ACVB London showcase is the first in a course of activities launched by the bureau designed to reposition Athens in the meetings industry and promote the Greek capital as a world-class meeting and convention destination.
Strong cards identified by the bureau and its speakers, which included Greece’s ambassador to London Demetrios Karamitsos-Tziras, included the destination’ s extrovert personality, networking dynamics and high professionalism.
“Thanks to the Olympics 2004, Athens possesses excellent infrastructures and, after the financial crisis there seem to be a keen interest in investing in Greece, marking a clear development tendency,” the ambassador said.
Maria Logotheti, president of the City of Athens Development and Destination Management Agency, said the city would “continue to invest in showcasing Athens, through a series of initiatives designed to present the unique advantages of the city”.
Other supporters of the showcase were airline Aegean, the Athens-Attica and Argosaronic Hotel Association and the Hellenic Association of Conference Organisers (HAPCO).
“Athens’s recovery effort is ongoing; in this effort, congress tourism can play a pivotal role both in the qualitative upgrading of the tourist product and in dealing with seasonality,” said Alexandros Vasilikos, president of Athens-Attica and Argosaronic Hotel Association.
Athens, in recent years, has climbed into the 25 most popular conference tourism destinations, hosting 79 conferences, in 2016 (ICCA Statistics Report 2016). The total economic impact of the 2016 conferences amounted to €61m.
The ACVB recently participated in the successful selection of Athens as host of the ICOMIA International Marina Conference, in October 2018. The bid was submitted by the Greek Marinas Association.
The ACVB roadshow presentations will look to expand to Brussels, The Hague and more cities within 2018.
CN can highly recommend the Greek yoghurt and honey recipes that were also showcased!
