City focus
Athens partners up for big
new push for business events
n recent years Athens has
worked hard on its
economy and on creating
an attractive framework
for investments. It is a strategy that
has in particular, pushed the Energy,
Information Technology, Life and
Pharmaceutical Sciences sectors to the
fore, including for conferencing.
Athens certainly offers a fascinating
combination of MICE and leisure
tourism, and is a popular geographical
hub for international visitors.
The city’s convention bureau tells
CMW it has four clear strategic aims:
• To become a top of mind European
capital for hosting highly professional
international conferences and
memorable corporate meetings.
• To showcase distinct added values for
the city’s professional visitors in key
emerging industry sectors
• To grow a network of local partners
that will receive S.M.A.R.T support,
according to their business needs
• To be able to measure success and
failure and react accordingly.
Another development has been the
joining of forces by the City of Athens,
AEGEAN, Athens International
Airport, and the Greek Tourism
Confederation (SETE), with other
stakeholders, to form the public-private
partnership, ‘This is Athens &
Partners’, designed to bolster the city’s
visitor economy.
Managing Director of the Athens
Development & Destination
Management Agency (ADDMA -
which oversees the city’s CVB), Alexis
Galinos, has also announced a
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three-year €15m plan for the
development of the city’s visitor
economy which includes a number of
projects for management and
marketing of Athens as a destination,
including curation of events.
This is Athens & Partners’ campaign
has a goal of attracting 200,000 new
visitors to the city and Athens CVB is
launching a three-year plan to attract
international conferences and meetings
to the city.
The ACVB’s 6th annual Travel
Trade Athens 2018 in October at the
Hotel Grande Bretagne attracted
hosted buyers from 25 countries and
offered tours for buyers and media
ISSUE
99
Clockwise,
from top left, Athens
offers:
1 – Thematic Tours
at TTA
2 – Social events with
a big backdrop
3 – A big hub and
venues for face-to-
face meetings;
4 – Major ‘forums’
across the wider Attica region.
Mayor of Athens, Georgios Kaminis
has said that, between 2012 and 2017,
Athens had seen a 100% rise in the
number of visitors.
“In just five years we have gone from
the grim reality of 2012 to Athens
being ranked among the top tourist
destinations in Europe,” the Mayor
said, adding: “We know our cultural
heritage and vibrant contemporary
identity make us stand out as a
destination. We have a number of big
infrastructure investments and urban
regeneration projects underway that
will help us further develop our
destination.”