Astypalea Makes Headlines in German, Austrian Media

A recent feature of the German News Agency, dpa International (Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH), on the island of Astypalea in the Dodecanese, was republished by more than 150 printed and online media outlets in Germany and Austria and reached millions of readers, the South Aegean Region said on Thursday.

According to an announcement, the articles on Astypalea in the German and Austrian press, including those on bild.de, allgemeine-zeitung.de and tz.de, reached more than 600 million readers and 33 million social media users, while the publicity’s advertising value reached 1.4 million euros.

“The article of dpa was republished by dozens of German-speaking media and promoted the island to one of our main tourism markets,” said Marieta Papavasiliou-Vakiani, vice governor of Tourism, Sports and Culture, South Aegean Region. “This is exactly our goal: to maintain the interest of our basic tourism markets, in order to increase arrivals to all destinations,” she added.

The journalists of dpa were hosted on Astypalea during a press trip organized by the Tourism Department of the South Aegean Region and Rhodes’ Regional Office, the Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE) and Marketing Greece.

The journalists referred to the island as a “jewel”, underlining that it is the ideal destination, which has a lot to offer its visitors, though having limited tourism development. The article also highlighted Astypalea’s gastronomy and local products.

The dpa journalists had previously traveled to Rhodes during a press trip, which resulted in more than 200 online articles being published in the German press.