The Culture and Tourism Ministry plans to turn the world’s attention to Athens through a new promotional program called: “Athens Every Week”.
The presentation of the programme was made by Culture and Tourism Minister Pavlos Geroulanos during the annual general assembly of the Athens-Attica Hoteliers Association on Tuesday. Hoteliers welcomed the project saying it would contribute to restoring the capital’s reputation, while it was also a good starting point for fundamental and constructive cooperation between the public and private sectors.
Addressing the general assembly, Geroulanos said the programme would renew interest for Athens by offering a chance to extend the tourism season and created a single platform for all actions and events happening in the city.
“It is a programme capable of promoting with some fantasy, a little effort and some money, all the things making Athens a special city, a lively city. A programme offering answer to a question set by foreigners again and again during our trips abroad. Where have you been?” the Minister said. He also announced that the Ministry would use money from a National Framework Reference Fund to support tourism and cultural actions. He said that a tender for creating a congress centre in the Tae Kwon Do facility would be launched in the next ten days.
President of the Association Yiannis Retsos underlined the necessity of promoting tourism in Athens and presented a series of actions aimed at boosting hotel reservations. He also presented a report on current 2010 figures. Room occupancy in Athens-Attica hotels surpassed 90% during the October 29-31 period because of the Athens Marathon 2010 event. Retsos highlighted the benefits of such large scale events in Greek tourism.
GBR Consulting also presented a survey regarding customer satisfaction rate. The survery showed that more than 90% of respondents say they would visit Athens again, despite the fact that the indexes of cleaning, security and transportation showed a decline since 2009. The survey showed that revenue per available room fell 6.9% in the January-September period for hotels in the Athens-Attica region, compared with a 12.2% increase in Western Europe and a 5.9% rise in southern Europe.
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