Mixing business with pleasure in Greece...

In to 2005 and fresh from its success hosting the Olympic Games, Greece will unveil its new stateofthe-art facilities and ideas for inspiring incentives.

The successful organisation and hosting of the Olympic Games, has presented to the whole world the new image and vision of Greece and showcased the countrys modern infrastructure.

These two factors combined have set the scene for Greece to emerge as a contender in the MICE market. Greece is destination comprising of a variety of cities and islands offering organisers a plethora of choices.

Greece is a single destination which houses a number of other destinations with varying characteristics, each offering its own unique blend of culture, history, landscape, facilities and activities.

The conference and incentive portfolio of our country has been enriched with the Olympic Games venues. A number of the 23 venues have been designated as conference and events locations.

Athens as the capital is enjoying a tremendous renaissance. Athens is experiencing a very busy 2005 and bookings are fast coming in for 2006 and 2007. Thessaloniki, the capital of Northern Greece, has seen a tremendous increase of 3% year on year in the number of events being hosted. Both cities however, should not rest on their laurels because there is a number of up and coming destinations that are doing extremely well in hosting conferences such as Rhodes, Crete, Kos and Halkidiki.

All of these destinations over the past few years have been hosts to some prestigious events like ABTA Convention in 2000 held at Kos International Conference Centre, Halkidiki hosted the European Summit in 2003 and Rhodes is set to host the ICCA Conference in 2006 at the Marika Capsis Conference Centre.

Greece is looking forward to 2005 as the new parameters are being set for catapulting the country into the worldwide charts as a conferencing destination.

For more information on hosting your next event in Greece please contact the Conference and Incentive Office of the Greek National Tourism Organisation on 020 7499 4694 or email: mice@gnto.co.uk

If you are interested in arranging a presentation about Greece please contact: