Greek Travel Agents Have Culture Tourism High on Agenda

The Federation of Hellenic Associations of Tourist & Travel Agencies (fedHATTA) has announced that it will include the Athens-Epidaurus Festival event program within the culture section of its tourism action plan “Dodeka” for it to receive more exposure.

Yiorgos Paliouras, fedHATTA’s board member; Stathis Skretas, fedHATTA’s secretary general; Orsia Sofra, theatrologist; Lysandros Tsilidis, fedHATTA’s president; and Vasillis Theodoropoulos, Athens-Epidaurus Festival’s artistic director.

The announcement came during a meeting held last week between the festival’s artistic director, Vasillis Theodoropoulos, who was accompanied by theatrologist Orsia Sofra, and fedHATTA’s president, Lysandros Tsilidis, accompanied by the federation’s secretary general, Stathis Skretas and board member, Yiorgos Paliouras.

During the meeting, Mr Theodoropoulos informed fedHATTA’s representatives in detail on the festival’s 2016 program and underlined the need for the events to be promoted more extensively abroad so to attract more foreign visitors when they holiday in Greece.

On his part, Mr Tsilidis presented fedHATTA’s tourism action plan “Dodeka”, which includes proposals for cultural events (“Cult Tour”) among its 12 main sections. The aim of “Dodeka” is to give travel agents ideas regarding thematic and special interest activities that they can include in their travel packages to Greece. Mr Tsilidis said that the festival’s events will soon be promoted dynamically via “Dodeka” to international audiences.

Mr Tsilidis and Mr Theodoropoulos agreed to meet again very soon to get the cooperation off the ground.

fedHATTA holds talks with culture minister

Acropolis, Athens. © Maria Theofanopoulou

fedHATTA also focused on culture during a meeting last week with the minister in charge on the matter, Aristides Baltas.

During the meeting, effective ways to strengthen cultural tourism with the support of Greek travel agencies were explored.

Among issues discussed was the introduction of the electronic ticket service to the country’s archaeological sites and museums and the improvement of the current unified ticket regime.

The federation also requested for the ministry to consider allowing archaeological sites and monuments to operate as venues for high quality events for which there is high demand, such as major conferences.

According to an announcement, the federation and ministry will resume talks soon. In the meantime, technical details of the partnership have been put on the table for consultation.