The board of the leading organization in European organized tourism, ECTAA, was welcomed to City Hall by the mayor of Athens, Kostas Bakoyannis on Wednesday, September 27, World Tourism Day, in a symbolic, low-key event for Athenian tourism, with the participation of representatives from FedHATTA and HATTA.

The meeting with Mayor Bakoyannis was attended by the managing director of EATA of the Municipality of Athens, Epaminondas Mousios and the head of Strategic Planning of EATA of the Municipality of Athens, Alexia Panagiotopoulos, while ECTAA was represented by its President, Frank Oostdam, General Secretary Eric Dresin, Deputy General Secretary Christina Russe and the members of the Executive Committee Boris Zgomba, Daniela Stoeva and Heli Maki Franti. Representing FedHATTA and HATTA were the president of FedHATTA, Lysandros Tsilidis, the president of HATTA, Secretary General of FedHATTA, the president of the ECTAA Tourism Committee and a candidate for city councilor, Nikolas Kelaiditis and the Deputy General Secretary of FedHATTA and member of the Executive Committee of ECTAA, Marios Kammenos.

During the event, issues related to the modern tourist face of Athens, the challenges posed by the new trends in global tourism and the tourist infrastructure of the city were discussed.

Mr. Tsilidis stated: “Once again, the mayor of Athens, Kostas Bakoyannis, fulfilled the promise he had given us in our previous meeting. He warmly welcomed our European partners in organized tourism, who were thrilled by the meeting and are already preparing special vacation programs for city breaks that are expected to further boost tourist flows to Athens. The representatives of ECTAA wished good success to the mayor in view of his contest in the upcoming local government elections and expressed their undivided support for Nikolas Kelaiditis, who is a candidate for city councilor with the party of Kostas Bakoyannis.”

For his part, Mr. Kelaiditis said: “Sustainable tourism development requires systematic monitoring, cooperation and commitment from all stakeholders. Only in this way can we ensure that Athens remains a sustainable tourist city that offers quality experiences to its visitors and prosperity to its residents. We are honored to have the European partners of FedHATTA and HATTA participate in this collective effort.”

The board and a delegation of ECTAA members are in Athens these days to attend the organization’s biannual conference, which takes place in the Greek capital on September 28 and 29, and is expected to put, once again, Athens and Greece in the focus of discussions on European tourism, but also to contribute to the further strengthening of our country and its capital as destinations on the agenda of Europe’s tourism professionals.