The Virtual Workshop on Luxury Tourism and Gastronomy with the Benelux market, organized by Tourism Media & Events, has been successfully completed today. Around 481 business meetings have been held between Benelux tour operators and travel agents and Greek tourism companies and destinations, but also between Benelux food importers and Greek food export companies.
The interest in Greek tourism is extremely high for the touristic 2022, as shown in the high number of participations. The Benelux tour operators noted that Greece despite the pandemic remains high in the preferences of their compatriots, as confirmed by the particularly high attendance at B2B meetings compared to other live events-workshops in the past. Dozens of retailers and importers also confirm this high interest in Greek tourism, as they are more than willing to get in touch with Greek companies in the food and beverage sector, which promote Greek tourism through gastronomy.
84 Beneluxtravel agents, 15 distinguished media, and 15 importers of Greek products participated in the event. On the Greek side, 16 tourist destinations and businesses and 14 F&B companies from the Attica Region participated.
The main Sponsor of the event was the Greek National Tourism Organization.
Aegean Airlines was the Official Air Carrier Sponsor. Sponsors of the event; the Region of Western Greece, the “Greek Breakfast”, the Athens International Airport; the Honored Region was the Region of Crete, and the Honored Gastronomic Region the Region of Attica.
Despite the strict cross-border controls and restrictions on the movement of goods and services which persist due to the ongoing pandemic of COVID 19, Tourism Media & Events has made a decisive contribution to the upgrading of the tourism product of Greece, and has also promoted the Greek F&B exports.
At the beginning of the event, a webinar was held with presentations of Greek destinations and gastronomic products to representatives of large and specialized local media, ensuring maximum publicity of the event.
The event was honored by the presence of the Greek Deputy Minister of Tourism, Mrs. Sofia Zacharaki, and the Secretary General of Greeks Abroad and Public Diplomacy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Giannis Chrysoulakis.
Presentations were made by the Director of GNTO in Benelux, Mrs. Eleni Skarveli, the Head of Tourism of the Region of Crete, Mr. Nikos Alexakis, the Agricultural Specialist of the Region of Attica, Mrs. Maria Konstantopoulou, Mrs. Georgia Papaspyrou from the Director of Tourism Planning of the Strategic Region of Western Greece and Mrs. Caroline Cairns, Account Manager of Aegean Airlines in United Kingdom, Ireland, and Benelux.
The event has been concluded on Monday 22.11.2021 with a live raffle draw where 30 gifts from destinations and businesses were offered to travel agents, giving them the opportunity to visit Greece and seal their collaborations with Greek participants.