This is Athens- Europe’s rising star for association events

Athens keeps on moving upwards as a top meetings’ destination; one more step in establishing the Greek capital as an attractive location for visitors, residents, professionals and investors.

Athens is rising as a top choice for association events, ranking as the 24th top convention destination in the world for 2018 and the 16th in Europe, according to the latest International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) Annual Report.

In a highly competitive environment, this accomplishment is reinforced by This is Athens-Convention & Visitors Bureau (ACVB) -awarded as Europe’s Leading City Tourist Board at the World Tourism Awards 2018-, which is launching a 3-year plan to attract a large number of international conferences and meetings in Athens. In this context, ACVB will organize the 7th Travel Trade Athens 2019 (www.traveltradeathens.gr), the signature annual B2B workshop of the City, which offers leisure and MICE buyers from around the globe the opportunity to develop first-hand business relationships with Greek suppliers and experience the city highlights.

It is worth mentioning that ACVB has managed to achieve an increase of 11% in the number of association events that took place in the city during 2018. The increasing number of meetings taking place within the off-season period (November-March) over the past two years is rather encouraging, since the promotion of Athens as a year-round destination for leisure and events was a priority within the greater strategic plan of This is Athens & Partners; the unique private-public partnership, led by the City of Athens.

«Athens has every reason to be optimistic», states Mr. Alexis Galinos CEO, Athens Development & Destination Management Agency and Member of the Steering Committee of This is Athens & Partners. «The city has already hosted a great number of association meetings and events of every scale, highlighting its high quality of services and event know-how. We foresee a further development and work closely together to boost the city’s visitor economy in a substantial way for the city’s citizens and visitors. The unique partnership of This is Athens & Partners was initiated by the City of Athens and has a comprehensive 3-year 15M Euros plan for the development and growth of the city’s visitor economy which includes a number of wide ranging projects for the development, management and marketing of Athens as a destination», Mr. Galinos adds.

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This is Athens & Partners is a unique partnership led by the City of Athens that brings together major stakeholders including the Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE), AEGEAN, the Athens International Airport, Lampsa S.A., Lamda Development, and Ioniki Hotel Enterprises S.A. The partnership focuses on developing, managing and promoting Athens as an attractive year-round destination for visitors, residents, professionals and investors, by introducing a number of wide-ranging projects.

The strategic plan of This is Athens & Partners, expands in three axes:
• Destination development which runs through This is Athens-Polis and includes projects of urban regeneration schemes across town, the opening of closed shops in the city centre to boost local entrepreneurship and upgrade public areas, and a 2-year anti-tagging programme to polish the image of Athens. It also includes the curation of events and gigs that boost the city’s already rich agenda and promote Athens as a contemporary cultural hub.
• Destination management through the volunteer programme This is Athens-With a Local and the operation of This is Athens-Info Points in two key areas of the city.
• Destination marketing through the campaign of This is Athens “One City. Never Ending Stories.” and the new official Portal which is about to be launched.