The assessment that “the foundations have been laid for a very optimistic forecast for the year, much better than 2021, which has already moved towards higher goals than the initial ones”, expressed the Deputy Minister of Tourism Sofia Zacharakiduring today’s presentation account of Thessaloniki Tourism Organization for 2021.
Ms. Zacharaki stressed that “Thessaloniki, the neighboring municipalities and the Region can give this year the tone of what the traveler is asking for”, ie local color, authenticity, routes that the tourist will discover, 15 Unesco monuments, gastronomy, art, culture, sports and cruise. “This year”, underlined the Deputy Minister of Tourism, Thessaloniki will give its mark in the field of cruising with an awesome proliferation.
She also referred to the campaign that will start from Ministry of Tourism for the “city break”, in which, as he said, “Athens and Thessaloniki will be the two main cities that will be shown in the first commercials”.
He also noted that the magic word in tourism is synergy, pointed out that many investments are expected in the city and described the fact that Thessaloniki was included in the list of gastronomic destinations of Creative Cities of gastronomy as a great success.
A. Tzitzikostas: “For 2022 we expect a record of arrivals” – Optimistic and K. Zervas
During the presentation, the governor of Central Macedonia, Apostolos Tzitzikostas stressed that “for 2022 we expect a record of arrivals” and underlined that “the picture we already have is very good”.
“Already, the extension of the tourist season is becoming a practice, we see it in the bookings”, he noted and added that this was visible even before the pandemic “that we saw an increase of 20 and 30% in the months of spring and autumn”.
According to Mr. Tzitzikostas, cruise tourism is going extremely well for this year, for the first time. “We started on February 5 with the first ship that arrived in Thessaloniki, the first cruise ship, and for us cruise tourism is a goal and we will achieve it,” he said, adding that central Macedonia can support tourism 365 days a year. .
His Deputy Secretary General ΕΟΤ Konstantinos Zikos pointed out that the Thessaloniki Tourism Organization now has new tools for the conclusion of collaborations with the new relevant law, while he stressed that Thessaloniki “should focus – and has already focused – its attention on the field of alternative forms of tourism.
For his part, the mayor of Thessaloniki Konstantinos Zervas said: “we are optimistic for this year, as shown by the infrastructure we have, our new airport, most flights, the cruises we see from 17 last year at least 52 this year, the very big improvements made to the hotel infrastructure we have. “There is great interest in our city.” On the occasion of the gloomy climate that has been created in recent times for the city, he stressed: “we will all leave what is bad behind us and will promote all the good that our city has.”
One hundred promotion and marketing actions in the 2021 report
Presenting the 2021 report, the president of the Thessaloniki Tourism Organization, vice-governor of Thessaloniki Voula Patoulidou pointed out that 2021 was the year that showed the first optimistic and hopeful signs of recovery for tourism, while likening Thessaloniki as “an athlete waiting in line the starting pistol to start not from scratch, but from where it may have stopped in 2019 “.
Among other things, Ms. Patoulidou pointed out that the Thessaloniki Tourism Organization joined the members of ABTA, one of the largest associations of travel agents in the world, entered into a partnership with MedCruise, the strong name of the cruise industry in the Mediterranean, added three more awards to the collection at the top tourism institution Tourism Awards, which is organized every year under the auspices of the Ministry of Tourism and organized campaigns on social media and foreign channels for the tourism product of the city and the need of the prospective traveler to get back what was deprived during pandemic.
He also presented the first production of the myths of Thessaloniki, based on the myth of the mermaid, informed every month 6000 travel agents around the world, while he made the promotion of Thessaloniki in printed listings in National Geographic Traveler UK and other international print and digital publications. At the same time, the city was promoted as a tourist destination on travel platforms, such as Trivago, while the Organization, aiming at the promotion and promotion of 15 cultural heritage sites, launched a printed and digital listing in the official magazine of Unesco World Heritage.
In total, during 2021, more than one hundred promotion and marketing actions were implemented for the city’s tourism.
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