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Travel Trade Athens Programme

Travel trade athens connects some of the world’s biggest travel trade and mice players with the leading suppliers in the greek tourism and mice industry. don’t miss out..

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Nautical Tourism in Attica

Explore the Attica Riviera with a sailing cruise along the coastline! Explore an alternative view of Athens and the wider Attica region during a wonderful sunset. Upon your arrival in Cape Sounio, you will drive back to Athens through the coastal road of Attica exploring therefore all its beauties both from the sea and the land side.

A Dive into Greek Gastronomy

“A Dive into Greek Gastronomy” Τhe story of Greek cuisine – a country can be discovered through flavors, tastes and dishes. One bite may reveal the history of the country’s mainland; an aroma may evoke the stories of the seas. It is a country’s dishes that can reveal its whole history, culture and character. Explore the journey of Greek cuisine through Gastronomics, the new dinning concept offered by Aegean on the airline’s Business Class flights.

MICE Fam Trip for large to small scale events

Departure from your hotel and visit of the main MICE venues of Athens Visit of: MAICC / DIVANI CARAVEL HOTEL / HILTON ATHENS / INTERCONTINENTAL ATHENAEUM ATHENS

MICE Fam Trip for medium to small scale events

Departure from your hotel and visit of INCENTIVE venues of Athens Visit of: ELECTRA METROPOLIS HOTEL / WYNDHAM GRAND ATHENS / ATHENS MARRIOTT HOTEL / GRAND HYATT ATHENS

Wine - Gastronomic Tourism in Attica: Attica's wineries

Enjoy a tour to an Attica winery and its Cellars. Taste a full range of labels and learn all about the wines and their flavors.

Acropolis & Plaka

Depart from your Hotel by metro and enjoy a walking tour in the ancient heart of the city of Athens. Stroll in Dionysiou Areopagitou and Plaka and visit the city’s most iconic archaeological landmark, the Acropolis, before you return back to your hotel.

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Travel Trade Athens, the City of Athens’ signature B2B workshop, hosts selected international buyers focusing on Athens and Greece. Travel Trade Athens is organized by the City of Athens and ADDMA with the cooperation of ETOA (European Tour Operators Association), under the umbrella of the unique private-public partnership This is Athens & Partners, offering international travel trade and MICE professionals the opportunity to develop first-hand business relationships with leading suppliers from Athens and the rest of Greece. Since its launch in 2013, Travel Trade Athens has welcomed more than 700 buyers from 35 countries. With the completion of the Travel Trade Athens 2023, the event has supported more than 19,500 B2B meetings between Greek and international tourism professionals.  During Travel Trade Athens, hosted buyers have the opportunity to visit significant city sights and attractions, inspect meeting venues and get acquainted with all the benefits and competitive advantages of the Greek capital. In addition, they are able to meet Greek tourism professionals in pre-scheduled meetings and achieve better networking by attending tailored tours and special events. For suppliers, Travel Trade Athens offers the chance to attend at least 12 pre-scheduled 14-minute meetings with top MICE, corporate and leisure buyers from across the globe. Moreover, they have the chance to further network over lunch, coffee breaks as well as during the farewell dinner. 

For more information, please contact [email protected]

“Travel Trade Athens is helpful for all tour operators that do their business in Athens and the surroundings area. Thank you for this opportunity.”

Lukas Neveceral, Victoria Travel Agency

“A great event that really showcased what Athens as a city has to offer and the suppliers that can make our clients' experience of this city even better.”

Marcus Hunt, OutOfOffice.com

“Travel Trade Athens is the perfect event to meet professionals of the travel industry in Greece.”

Anetta Szczesna, AS Travel

“This Travel Trade Athens gets better and better every year. A must go workshop for anybody who works with Greece.”

Francesca Smiderle, Explorica Inc.

“Travel Trade Athens opened for me the destination - Athens and Greece. In spite of short time, it was organized so properly that I could find a lot of suitable potential partners that know the destination quite well. I can even state that I left the event with a 4-day incentives programme for our partners in my mind. Good job, dear organizing committee!”

Elmar Guliyev, Bakcell

“The quality of suppliers was excellent.”

Melanie McIlroy, Craig Travel

“Arrived as a visitor, after the event, I left as a destination specialist. Thanks to all suppliers.”

Myo Aung, Visita Travel

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Greek and Int’l Tourism Professionals Meet at Travel Trade Athens 2021 Event

Athens, Greece

Leading executives of tourism enterprises from Greece and abroad are participating in the Travel Trade Athens (TTA) 2021 , the annual event that kicked off online on Monday.

Organized by the Athens Development & Destinations Management Agency (EATA)  in collaboration with the European Tour Operators Association – ETOA, the event aims to promote the Greek capital and drive growth in the tourism sector.

In its seventh year, the TTA 2021 event was held in digital form due to the Covid-19 global restrictions that made it difficult for participants to travel to Athens . In digital form, the event has brought together 81 representatives of Greek tourism enterprises and 66 foreign tourism professionals to discuss on the potential of future partnerships.

According to EATA, TTA has recorded 1,200 virtual meetings.

The event is hosting tourism executives from 22 countries including the US, Canada, the UK, The Netherlands, Germany and France.

AEGEAN CEO Eftichios Vasilakis, EATA President Melina Daskalaki, Athens Mayor Kostas Bakoyannis, Athens International Airport CEO Yiannis Paraschis.

Educational workshops and digital tours

Aiming to inform and educate local tourism professionals, Travel Trade Athens 2021 also includes a rich program of workshops.

“In collaboration with some of the world’s leading tourism organizations, we have designed a dynamic rich program of creative workshops with many different subjects, offering the opportunity to over 100 executives of Athens’ tourism industry to participate,” EATA President Melina Daskalaki told reporters during an online press conference that was held on the second day of the event.

In addition, EATA has given participants the opportunity to virtually explore Athens through digital tours .

According to Daskalaki, EATA will continue to promote the city as a tourism destination through fam trips for tourism professionals and press trips for representatives of international media, as soon as travel restrictions ease – probably in May and June.

She added that the Athens Convention and Visitors Bureau (ACVB) is looking into a more sustainable future with the organization of “green meetings” aiming to have the least possible impact on the environment. Launched in 2008, the ACVB is part of EATA and aims to make the Greek capital the destination of choice for meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE).

The TTA 2021 event will wrap up on Tuesday.

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Athens builds momentum in global tourism market at Travel Trade Athens 2022

The city’s signature annual B2B event

“Athens is back and looking forward – with the biggest players in Greek tourism as its allies.”

Athens re-established its leading presence in the global tourism market during Travel Trade Athens 2022. The event is a catalyst for the dynamic and sustainable return of visitors to Athens, with more than 160 representatives of Greek and international companies holding meetings during the event.

More than 60 representatives of foreign companies in the tourism and events industry came to Athens for the two-day event, connecting Athens to key markets in Europe, the UK, the United States, and the Middle East. They had more than 1,500 meetings with representatives from 90 Greek companies with the goal of completing business agreements that will strengthen the economy of Athens. Ten journalists from major international media were hosted alongside the buyers and suppliers and participated in parallel events that included a series of authentic urban experiences, events and seminars for the participants.

A press briefing opened the event with the participation of Mayor Kostas Bakoyannis, President of Aegean Eftychios Vasilakis, Director of Communication and Marketing Athens International Airport Ioanna Papadopoulou, and CEO of ADDMA Vangelis Vlachos. Each of the speakers affirmed their commitment to strengthening the promotion and profile of Athens.

Kostas Bakoyannis

Mayor of athens.

Kostas Bakoyannis, Mayor of Athens, thanked the representatives of Aegean Airlines and the Athens International Airport for their cooperation in the effort to re-establish Athens in the global tourist market: “Athens is back, and it has returned with optimism, positive momentum, and I dare say enthusiasm despite the challenges that we continue to face. To a large extent, this is due to the fact that we have managed all together to turn the crisis into an opportunity. The pandemic has allowed us to re-establish ourselves internationally, not only because of the famous Acropolis, not only for Greek hospitality, not only for authentic food. We are proving that Athens is a city that functions professionally, creating an “umbrella” of protection for all Athenians – a term that includes both our residents and our visitors. This is a success in which institutions like This is Athens have been a catalyst.”

He continued, “In recent years, Athens has emerged as a destination for city breaks, for business trips, for investment and film productions. The improving numbers prove the value of the efforts that we have been making for several years to ensure that Athens is a great destination. Now we are not entitled to take a rest, quite the opposite. In the coming years, we must begin to alter the paradigm and change the way of thinking. We must understand our city holistically, not to separate the tourist and the local economy but to treat our destination and our city as one. When we invest in the quality of life for the residents of Athens, we also invest in Athens as a destination for visitors.”

Eftichiοs Vassilakis , President of Aegean Airlines: “We are pleased to see that investments in Athens continued during the years of the pandemic, with new large hotels, more boutique hotels, renovated buildings, restaurants, cultural venues, new products and experiences. This year the outlook is positive and we have the opportunity to promote a city that is even more beautiful and richer in experiences than two years ago. This collective effort is supported and strengthened by our investment in the new Business Lounge of Aegean in the extra-Schengen area of the ​​Athens Airport, offering a unique hospitality experience to visitors from England, America, Canada, the Middle East, and all those who travel from and to destinations outside Europe. This is particularly important because we have nearly lost contact with these passengers during the pandemic. At the same time, Aegean continues to invest in connections between Athens and the world with a network of 116 direct destinations in 42 countries, 20 of which are new since last year. We are continuing with the renewal of our fleet, with 22 additional new A320 and A321 neo that will be added to our fleet in 2022 and 2023 and helping to reduce our environmental footprint. When we all work together, we can have a city that’s exciting to visit, work, and also to live.”

Ioanna Papadopoulou , speaking on behalf of the Athens International Airport: “As we are moving forward in the post-pandemic era after two years of crisis, the close cooperation of all institutions in the “destination-travel-tourism value chain” continues. We are focusing our coordinated efforts on the promotion of Athens as a top sustainable destination. Based on the first positive messages for the summer season, which affirm the resilience of Athens, “Travel Trade Athens 2022” is the ideal platform to re-introduce and establish our destination in the most important international markets, and, at the same time, communicate the city’s new identity in the context of environmental sustainability, smart digital transformation, and innovation.”

Vagelis Vlachos , CEO of the Athens Development and Destination Management Agency: “Despite all the difficulties given to us, the pandemic also gave us an opportunity to design and put into action a comprehensive development plan for the City of Athens. It was a chance to reposition and develop Athens as an attractive, accessible, and sustainable city. To implement this strategy, we focused on two pillars: to emphasize conferences and meetings in order to strengthen our position as a top choice for business and to promote and empower local businesses with initiatives that promote entrepreneurship and innovation. The 8th Travel Trade Athens covers both of these axes – that’s the invaluable partnership between the This is Athens-Convention and Visitors Bureau and the European Tourism Association (ETOA). Now, we are ready for Athens to meet the world.”

Tim Fairhurst , Secretary-General of the European Tourism Association (ETOA): “ETOA is delighted once again to support the ADDMA team delivering TTA, providing 1,500 one-to-one networking appointments to more than 160 delegates. Athens integrates tourism within a cross-sectoral recovery and resilience strategy, working with local stakeholders as well as the international travel trade. Long-haul demand to Europe is returning. As the visitor economy rebuilds, we look forward to developing our partnership, finding common interest from climate action to commercial development and product diversification.”

The event has facilitated more than 17,000 B2B meetings

Since 2013, Travel Trade Athens has hosted more than 600 buyers from 35 countries and has facilitated more than 17,000 B2B meetings. The event is organized every year by the Athens Development and Destination Management Agency through the This is Athens-Convention and Visitors Bureau and in cooperation with the European Tourism Association (ETOA). The hosted buyers and press enjoyed a complete Hosted Buyer Program including air travel to and from Athens, accommodation in a 5-star hotel, transfers, thematic FAM trips, meals and social events, B2B meetings and networking opportunities.

The curated social and experiential programme was customized to the hosted buyers and press business focus and expertise, highlighting Athens’ main competitive advantages and showcasing the city’s latest trends and developments. Amongst others, the programme included visits to the Acropolis Museum, the Ellinikon Experience Park, the Ilias Lalaounis Jewelry Museum, and the Megaron Athens International Conference Centre (MAICC), the National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens (EMST) and the Zappeion Megaron among others.

For attending suppliers, Travel Trade Athens offers a half-day of educational workshops created in collaboration with major international organizations. The workshops were introduced in 2021 to promote the upskilling of the local tourism and meetings industry.

The 9th edition of the Travel Trade Athens will take place in April 2023. Find out more here .

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The 9th Travel Trade Athens

Over 160 representatives from the Greek and international tourism industry met in Athens for the 9th Travel Trade Athens , the signature annual B2B event of the City of Athens organised in collaboration with the European Tourism Association (ETOA). Operated by the Athens Development and Destination Management Agency (ADDMA), the event ran   April 24–25 with the participation of hosted buyers, local suppliers, and international media.

Since the start of Travel Trade Athens in 2013, visitor arrivals to Athens have increased by more than 160 per cent and the Athens meetings and events industry has been recognised as a rising leader in the European market that is creating local economic opportunities. This year, the event hosted more than 1,600 B2B meetings between Greek and international tourism professionals during the two-day event, including more than 60 hosted buyers and over 100 local suppliers. The hosted buyers represented the city’s target markets in Europe, the United Kingdom, the USA and Canada. 

At the Press Conference launching Travel Trade Athens 2023 and marking the start of the spring season, Mayor of Athens Kostas Bakoyannis  was joined by  Yiannis Paraschis , Chief Executive Officer of the Athens International Airport (AIA);  Eftichios Vassilakis , President of AEGEAN ;  and Tim Fairhurst , Secretary General of ETOA.

Kostas Bakoyannis, Mayor of Athens, underlined the importance of the event: “The 9th Travel Trade Athens is here. It is an exceptional event that is opening more windows and doors for Athens as a destination. Certainly, we have many reasons to be happy about the development of Athens as a tourist destination, as in recent years we have been breaking one record after another. To these, one more is added: it’s the first time in history that Athens is welcoming so many investments.”

The Mayor of Athens thanked all the partners who are contributing to the development of the tourist market of Athens. “I would like to extend a massive thank you to Mr Tim Fairhurst, the Secretary General of the European Tourism Organization. His presence honours us and is a vote of trust and confidence in the Athens market. I would also like to thank Mr Vassilakis and Mr Parashis for the excellent collaboration we have developed through This is Athens. This public-private partnership is a great opportunity for all of us because it enables us to join forces and achieve a much better result together.”

Tim Fairhurst said on behalf of ETOA: “A precondition for tourism success is the positive collaboration between private and public sectors. Athens understands this and our collective progress towards the best tourism for residents and tourists alike depends on it. We are delighted to be working with the city again, bringing quality buyers interested in developing new products.”

In addition to a full schedule of B2B meetings, the 9th  Travel Trade Athens includes a number of tours and experiences. It also hosts the  Τhis is Athens Agora , a half-day cross-sectoral gathering for Greek tourism professionals. Through a series of educational workshops, panel discussions and speeches from world-renowned industry professionals, the attending Greek professionals have the opportunity to gain valuable insights and develop expertise on the tourism industry’s global trends. 

The speakers included Tim Fairhurst, Secretary General of ETOA; Maria Founta , Head of Marketing South East Europe at Google; Anna Vasila , Head of Sustainability and Industry Affairs at the Athens International Airport; Christos Koutsoukos , Executive Creative Director of Cream and Rascal; Elke Dens , Global Director of The Travel Foundation; Ioannis Pallas , Association Manager of the ESAE – European Society of Association Executives; Dr Christina Gitsaki , Congress Coordinator of the International Association of Applied Linguistics; and Stylianos Filopoulos , Founder of Association by Design.

The organisers say they would like to convey special thanks to the Travel Trade Athens 2023 Partners: AEGEAN and Athens International Airport, as well as to the event’s Supporters: St. George Lycabettus Lifestyle Hotel, Alternative Athens, Association of Licensed Tourist Guides, with another great thank you to the Ministry of Culture for their ongoing support and cooperation.

The 9th Travel Trade Athens builds upon a strong year for the Athenian tourism industry. Through the efforts of the City of Athens and ADDMA’s strategic planning, as well as of This is Athens and Τhis is Athens-Convention & Visitors Bureau, Athens won its first global distinction at the World Travel Awards 2022 as the World’s Leading Cultural City Destination. The award followed the city’s double win at the European World Travel Awards where Athens was named “Europe’s Leading Cultural City Destination 2022” and This is Athens-Convention & Visitors Bureau received the “Europe’s Leading City Tourist Board” title for 2022.

Athens has also seen an upwards trend in the global meetings industry. The city ranked 6th in Europe and 8th in the world for international association meetings according to the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) Annual Report 2021, having hosted over 130 international association meetings and events.

Since its launch in 2013, Travel Trade Athens has welcomed more than 700 buyers from 35 countries. With the completion of the 9th  Travel Trade Athens , the event has supported more than 19,500 B2B meetings between Greek and international tourism professionals. The event is organised every year by the Athens Development and Destination Management Agency of the City of Athens (ADDMA) through the This is Athens-Convention and Visitors Bureau which operates under the umbrella of ADDMA, in collaboration with the European Tourism Association (ETOA).

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