Mayor: Athens Aiming to Attract Innovators, Investors

Establishing Athens into an attractive destination for investors, visitors and residents, and tapping into new forms of tourism are the city authority’s priorities for the next day, said Athens Mayor Kostas Bakoyannis during an online conference organized the Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE) and Marketing Greece.

Referring to the lessons learned from the Covid-19 pandemic, Bakoyannis said adaptability was key to moving forward and referred to the initiatives taken by the municipality to address the impact and plan ahead.

“Apart from being an ideal tourist destination, Athens can evolve into a hub of innovation and entrepreneurship in the Southeastern Mediterranean for investments and talent,” he said speaking during the virtual conference titled “Destination Greece | Communication in Challenging Times”.

In this direction he referred to plans for events in 2021 and 2022 with the focus on the 1^st This is Athens Innovation Summit to be organized jointly with education facilities, research centers, chambers and private enterprises from Greece and abroad.

Athens, Bakoyannis said, attracted “corona nomads”, a new form of traveler over the past year.

He went on to refer to actions being taken to improve the standard of living in the city in the form of upgrades budgeted at 240 million euros, to the promotion of the city through the “This is Athens” digital guide, and to awareness initiatives taken to address concerns about Covid-19.

“The aim is for travelers to feel safe and for the interest of potential visitors to Athens to be kept alive,” he said.

Looking ahead and stressing the importance of sustainability, Bakoyannis announced the creation of a Sustainable Tourism Observatory for Athens, which will collect and record data regarding the tourist economy.