Aristotelis Thomopoulos, President Thessaloniki Hotels Association

Philoxenia 2013 greeting.

Greek tourism has proven extremely resistant to the economic crisis. Exceeding this year’s target of 17 million arrivals brought “smiles” to Greece, along with a new confirmation that the comparative advantages of our country not only sustain but also jointly shape our strong proposal dynamically on the global tourism map.

Greece has rightly placed its tourism in the “steam engine” for the restructure of the Greek economy. We are now maximizing these benefits to extend our tourism season to 12 months a year. This is a target that will generate additional income, GDP growth and new jobs.

Here, at the Thessaloniki Hotels Association, we invest in extraversion and have made our presence apparent in all major exhibitions related to travel and tourism. The signs that we receive from international tourist arrivals, as domestic tourism has collapsed in recent years due to the economic crisis, show that we have a dynamic destination and we hope that 2014 will be an even better year.

The shift towards leisure tourism and establishing Thessaloniki as a city break destination for travelers from the Balkans, Russia and Europe are among our immediate priorities and we are working intensively towards this direction. Likewise we work to attract visitors from new markets-targets that have the ability to “exploit” air links via Athens and Istanbul and reach us in a short and safe time.

Those who had the opportunity to visit Thessaloniki at least once can easily understand why many tend to refer to the city as “a crossroad of the Southeast Europe cultures”. We aspire to make Thessaloniki a “crossroad for visitors from around the world” who will be fortunate to enjoy rare natural beauty and high quality tourism services. Thessaloniki has all the necessary supplies to turn its tourism dream into a reality.