Athens is “warming up” its engines to welcome its millions of visitors again this year, from every corner of the planet.

The 9th Travel Trade Athens 2023, the leading annual professional event of the Municipality of Athens with the aim of dynamically promoting Athens in the global tourism market, returns on April 24 & 25, 2023.

The organization-institution of the Greek tourism sector is implemented by the Development and Tourism Promotion Company of the Municipality of Athens (EATA), through the This is Athens-Convention & Visitors Bureau, in collaboration with the Association of European Travel Agents Tourism Association – ETOA).

Every year Travel Trade Athens brings Athens to the center of interest of the European and international business tourism market for industry professionals, but also for the industry media, while this year is a special year, as it is the first year without the restrictions of the pandemic to overshadow the tourist traffic.

The event is the main meeting point for Greek and foreign tourism professionals. Since its inception in 2013, Travel Trade Athens has welcomed over 600 hosted buyers from 35 countries around the world and hosted more than 18,000 B2B meetings. The 9th Travel Trade Athens 2023 is set to host in Athens 70 representatives of tourism offices and businesses, conference and event organizers and distinguished journalists of the industry, mainly from Europe, the United Kingdom, the USA and the Middle East.

Today, the first day of the event, the mayor of Athens, Kostas Bakoyannis, characterized the whole effort as a “huge opportunity for everyone, because it gives us the opportunity to join forces and together achieve a much better result.” Mr. Bakoyiannis emphasized that this is an excellent event, which hosts 70 representatives of tourism organizations from the main markets of Europe, America and Asia and 100 Athenian businesses.

“We have many reasons to be happy about the development of Athens as a tourist destination, Mr. Bakoyannis pointed out, adding that Athens welcomes so many investments for the first time in its history.

I think this is extremely optimistic for the coming years, but at the same time it creates an additional obligation for all of us in the Municipality of Athens, because Athens is currently a city in transition. It has changed a lot since 2019, the city’s challenges, problems, wants and perspectives are changing. And the question for the local government is to be able to follow this pace. and why not precede it. Now Athens can be proud not only of its ancient greatness, but also of itself as a modern destination, as a modern metropolis” noted Mr. Bakoyannis.

“We are happy to be going through the first year without the restrictions of the pandemic”, emphasized the Board of Directors. of Athens International Airport Yannis Paraschis and added: “After the pandemic, people’s desire to travel to urban destinations is particularly strong. For us at Athens Airport, it is very important that, in addition to being a leading tourist destination, Athens is also a leading sustainable destination for both its residents and visitors. We are perhaps the first airport in the world to generate 66% of its energy from clean sources within the airport and by 2025 we will have covered 100% of our needs.” said Mr. Paraschis.

The perfect cooperation with both the Municipality of Athens and Athens Airport was mentioned by the President of AEGEAN, Eutychios Vassilakis, emphasizing that “we are all investing in Athens. AEGEAN is also investing”, and he noted that “This year, Athens – just like Thessaloniki – will pass the numbers of 2019 and we are all here to make this happen in the best way”.

“We want to work with destinations” like Athens pointed out ETOA CEO Tim Fairhurst, stressing that tourism can be part of a strong economy while adding that it is important to make efforts both at the local and national level.

Let us remind you that for its effective efforts, the Convention and Visitors Bureau of the Municipality of Athens (This is Athens – CVB) was awarded the title of Europe’s Best Convention and Visitors Bureau for 2022 (Europe’s Leading City Tourist Board) at the World Travel Awards .