Conference tourism in Athens – Targeting first place for 2022

The Minister of Tourism Vassilis Kikilias and the Mayor of Athens Costas Bakogiannis agreed to joint planning with synergies and innovative “tools”, so that Athens becomes a tourist destination 365 days a year, in the meeting they had today at City Hall.

The Minister of Tourism and the Mayor of Athens agree that the tourism of the capital has enormous potential for further development not only in its historic center, but also in all its neighborhoods. There will even be targeted actions, such as tourism and cultural routes in the individual boroughs.

In addition, the next steps for the utilization of the dynamics presented by Athens as an ideal conference destination were discussed.

After the meeting, the Minister of Tourism Vassilis Kikilias made the following statement:

“I want to thank the mayor of Athens, Costas Bakoyannis, for the hospitality today, for the very interesting discussion we had and for the strategy we are building for Athens. Athens is of paramount importance to us in everything that has to do with tourism, in everything that has to do with trade, in everything that has to do with its neighborhoods and in the coming days we will announce joint actions that will aim to strengthen the city ​​365 days a year. Two very important actions will be, first the tourist – cultural routes in the apartments of Athens, we are jointly building a concept for the city and this has to do with the city break and the promotion that we will do through EOT for our capital, for the Municipality of Athens in the next period and of course the cooperation in what has to do with conference tourism, a very large potential that Athens has conquered, which was lost in the pandemic and we will bring it back in such an emphatic way so that to be able to facilitate the city’s economy. What is its economy? Hotels, accommodations, shops, processing, health care, restaurants, and its nightlife. All this together, we believe in synergies, we believe in cooperation and we found a very important teammate in this effort and I thank him very much.”

After the meeting, the Mayor of Athens Costas Bakogiannis noted:

I am particularly pleased to work with the Minister of Tourism, Vassilis Kikilias, a man who has proven in practice that he is a team “player”, but above all that he loves Athens very much. Together we are building a new integrated strategy that will allow us in the pandemic – and despite the pandemic – to re-establish Athens in the world. And I am not referring only to its historical center and the Acropolis, but also to the 129 neighborhoods of Athens, each of which hides separate routes of cultural and tourist interest, landmarks which we want to highlight “.

Regarding the prospects of the capital in the field of conference tourism and the necessary preparations made by the Municipality of Athens through the Company for Development and Tourism Promotion, Mr. Bakoyannis stressed:

“Last year, Athens was in 12th place internationally. For 2022 we believe that we can climb to the first or second place. So we start after the cooperation we entered into with the International Organization of Conferences (IAPCO) in order to determine the necessary health protocols because above all we want all visitors to our city to feel safe, to feel that they are in a city with professionalism, with seriousness and responsibility “.