Attica Promotes its Tourism Experiences with New Videos

The Region of Attica is aiming to redesign the ideal ‘Attica experience’ it offers to foreign visitors by promoting its multi-dimensional tourism profile and following an ambitious strategy to further attract more and improve their stay.

“We are strengthening Attica’s tourism identity and highlighting its comparative advantages, aiming to turn it into a modern and cosmopolitan 12-month tourism destination,” the region’s governor, George Patoulis, said on Tuesday before presenting the region’s new tourism promotional videos for 2020.

Part of the region’s new campaign for 2020, the videos – titled “Intergenerational”, “Kukuvagia (The Owl)” and “Glaros (The Seagull)” – focus on promoting Attica’s culture, gastronomy, beaches, museums, monuments and Argosaronic islands, including Kythera and Antikythera. The videos were directed by Theodoris Papadoulakis and Maria Douza and produced in cooperation with Steficon.

“Our goal is to give Attica the title of the ‘Eternal Metropolis of the World’,” he said.

The region’s campaign also includes another eight short thematic spots that each focus on Attica’s offered tourism forms, including religious tourism, family tourism, luxury tourism and conference tourism.

During his speech, the governor said that besides participating in international exhibitions abroad, the region plans to boost Attica’s promotion by targeting specific markets through advertising and social networks and also by aligning with the strategic goals of the Tourism Ministry in order to attract high-income tourists throughout the year.

Attica’s target markets include its “traditional markets” such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Russia; its “upcoming markets” such as Australia, Turkey, Israel, China and the United Aran Emirates; and Greece (domestic tourism).

Underlining priorities to boost tourism in 2020, Patoulis said the region will focus on developing new tourism forms – with a special focus on health and wellness tourism – to boost revenue and attract investments.

Attica expects rise in arrivals and revenue

Overall, Patoulis said the Attica Region is expecting this year to see a 5 percent rise in tourist arrivals to 6.1 million and a 10 percent growth in revenue, reaching 2.7 billion, compared to 2019.

“We are committed to these goals and to even more impressive results, and we – alike the whole tourism market – are hoping that adverse developments and conditions, such as the global coronavirus epidemic, will not further hurt the global tourism traffic,” the governor stressed.

Patoulis added that the region would strive to boost the average length of stay of visitors by 4 percent( to 5.7 days); overnight stays by 10 percent (35 nights); and the average expenditure per trip of visitors by 5 percent (to 450 euros). An additional aim for 2020 is for the region to see an increase in hotel beds by 2,000 (from 62,800 to 64,000 or 2%), with a focus on four- and five-star hotels (from 31,800 to 33,000 or 3.7%).

Overall tourism strategy for 2020

Referring to the region’s overall strategy for 2020, Patoulis announced that the region would cooperate with Attica’s 66 municipalities to promote areas that have remained “untouched” to date; work towards offering incentives to attract investments in tourism, culture and sports; design an attractive coastal for Attica front based on sustainable development; support actions for the development of cultural routes in Attica and the creation of a network of the region’s archaeological sites and museums.

Another ambitious part of the region’s 2020 strategy will be its effort to see how it can utilize the venues of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games to host mega events.

Patoulis also said that the region will support the development of a seaplane transport network at the borders of Attica, for its connections with the Argosaronic islands, Kythera and Antikythera.

Moreover, the govenor said he would see to create a unified tourism organization of Attica, which will plan and coordinate all of the region’s actions and involve all municipalities and professional bodies.

Underlining that Attica “must be accessible for all”, Patoulis said emphasis would be placed on infrastructure projects to facilitate the movement of visitors, with a priority for people with disabilities.