All-year Destination Greece Takes Spotlight at EXPO 2020 Dubai

Greece can offer Arab travelers a wide array of tourism options all year round, informed Secretary General for Tourism Policy and Development Olympia Anastasopoulou during her meetings with local travel and tourism stakeholders at the Expo 2020 Dubai.

The newly appointed secretary general presented expo visitors and officials with the “holistic experience” of Greece, which includes everything from sea and sun to a wealth of historic, cultural and special interest tourism products.

Speaking during a special event on the sidelines of the expo, Anastasopoulou underlined the importance of targeted promotional actions particularly for city break, gastronomy, cultural, wellness and marine & yachting tourism; areas which Greece has a “comparative advantage”, she said.  

During the event, Anastasopoulou met with local tourism officials and executives, including CEO Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing, Issam Kazim, to discuss further expanding a previous memorandum of understanding between the two countries foreseeing the promotion of alternative forms of tourism and cooperation in the areas of marine tourism.

She also met with Εsam Ahmed Abughazyain and Fabiana Maccarini, of P&O Marinas, Dubai’s premium marina operator, to discuss working together on the development of major Greek tourist ports.

Lastly, she met with Bob Kabli, SVP Online Sales Development at Emirates & Head of Emirates Holidays, and with Emily Jenkins και Meerah Kermit, representatives of Emirates Holidays and Dnata, two of the country’s largest tour operators, in order to explore the possibility of strengthening bilateral economic and trade relations and promoting investment partnerships.

During the Expo 2020 Dubai, national investment and trade organization Enterprise Greece highlighted eight key areas with growth potential in Greece: technology/innovation, energy, shipping, tourism/culture, human capital, industry, agri-food, and health sciences.

Earlier this month, Anastasopoulou attended the Saudi-Greek Investment Forum held in Riyadh, where Greece and Saudi Arabia agreed to work on further strengthening ties through mutual tourism initiatives.