Athens Evolves into City Break Favorite, Tourist Flows Rise

The Acropolis, Athens. Photo: GTP

Tourist flows to Athens are on the rise with the Greek capital establishing itself as one of Southeastern Europe’s favorite city break destinations, according to Athens Mayor Giorgos Kaminis.

The mayor attributed the city’s growing popularity to the “Athens Tourism Partnership”, a joint initiative by the City of Athens, AEGEAN and Athens International Airport (AIA) working to promote the Greek capital as an attractive, year-round, city break tourism destination.

Athens Mayor Georgios Kaminis

“With innovative advertising campaigns, we have achieved great results, contributing significantly to the take-off of tourism in the city. 2017 was a record year for arrivals as Athens welcomed 5 million visitors, double the 2012 figure, which spurred the interest of major hotel groups and the creation of new hotel units with multiple benefits for the local economy while leading to new jobs,” said Kaminis speaking at an event organized by Athens citizens’ movement Diazoma.

The mayor made special reference to the contribution of AEGEAN’s new ad campaign launched during the ITB 2018 trade show in Berlin earlier this year, titled “Spring in Athens”.

Kaminis went on to stress the importance of synergies in the further promotion of Athens as a city break destination and in this direction announced plans for the Athens Tourism Partnership to expand its collaboration with other bodies, institutions and companies.

Concluding, Mayor Kaminis referred to the importance of the city’s cultural offerings as a main incentive to visit the Greek capital, among these the municipality’s most recent action, which kicks off today, when Athens steps in as World Book Capital for 2018, during a special inauguration event at the Acropolis Museum with a year full of book-related events across town including reading happenings, seminars and conferences, workshops and competitions, activities for adults and kids.

Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos will inaugurate the World Book Year events tonight at the Acropolis Museum with music events and reading happenings along the Dionysiou Areopagitou pedestrian walkway following at at 7.45pm. At 10pm the Irodion Theater will host a free event dedicated to poetry and literature.