FedHATTA Honors Thessaloniki Mayor Yiannis Boutaris

Roula Saloutsi, Aegean Airlines’ Director of Public Relations and Press; Andreas Andreadis, SETE President; Yiannis Boutaris, Thessaloniki Mayor; FedHATTA President, Lysandros Tsilidis; Elena Kountoura, Alternate Tourism Minister and Mihalis Mavropoulos, CEO of TUI HELLAS.

Thessaloniki Mayor Yiannis Boutaris (R) with FedHATTA President Lysandros Tsilidis and HATTA Curator, Christina Bezantakou.

The Federation of Hellenic Associations of Tourist & Travel Agencies (FedHATTA) recently hosted an official dinner reception at the Hotel Grande Bretagne in honor of Thessaloniki Mayor Yiannis Boutaris for his contribution to the development of tourism.

The coordinator of the event was Greek journalist Thanassis Lalas who spoke about Yiannis Boutaris’ strong personality and his work as Mayor of Greece’s Northern port city.

In his address at the dinner, Mr Lalas referred to Mr Boutaris not as a “mayor”, but as a “traveler” of Greek tourism.

“This is a man with innovative thinking who has paved roads to showcase his region as a meeting place of civilizations”, Mr Lalas said.

Thessaloniki Mayor Yiannis Boutaris

On his part, the mayor of Thessaloniki underlined the need for the creation of a specific and targeted plan to promote the Greek tourism product worldwide.

During his speech, he particularly focused on gastronomy and wine tourism as key products to promote to travellers. He stressed the necessity of creating a tourism development project to promote Thessaloniki’s multicultural character, adding that such a project would bring “excellent results” in attracting Turkish and Israeli tourists.

Thessaloniki Mayor Yiannis Boutaris with SETE President Andreas Andreadis.

The special event was attended by many key tourism figures including Alternate Tourism Minister Elena Kountoura, Secretary General of Tourism Gerasimos Zaharatos, Secretary of Tourism Policy and Development Yiorgos Tziallas, the General Secretary of the Greek National Tourism Organization Dimitris Tryfonopoulos, the President of ABTA Noel Josephides, the President of SETE Andreas Andreadis, the CEO of TUI HELLAS Mihalis Mavropoulos and the President of the Economic and Social Council of Greece (OKE) George Vernicos.

FEDHATTA President Lysandros Tsilidis with Kronos Holidays’ Takis Fountas and Fay Founta.

Many Greek travel agencies and tourist enterprises also attended such as Kronos Holidays, Rhapsody, Dolphin Hellas, Kefi Tours, Olympic Cruises, Somaco Tours, Artion Conferences, Cosmoroes and Zorpidis Travel.

On the occasion of the dinner reception in honor of Mayor Boutaris, FedHATTA presented its action plan “Dodeka” (Twelve), which is designed to boost Greece as a year-round tourism destination.