EUROPE TRENDING
EUROPE TRENDING DESTINATION © Mstyslav Chernov Santorini island, Greece THE GREEK TOURISM BOOM CONTINUES International arrivals to Greece set to grow for fifth consecutive year After experiencing robust growth in 2017, the Greek National Tourism Organisation has announced a new tourism growth plan for 2018. Greece’s Tourism Minister, Elena Kountoura, announced at WTM London that 2018 had been the best year for her nation’s tourism industry, topping four years of continuous and steady growth. Greece is known for its picturesque beaches and beautiful islands making it one of the most popular destination summer destinations in Europe. However, it is more than just a summer sun destination, with exciting new routes opening up the country is a 365-day a year destinations with a diverse offering of holiday choices including skiing. Over the winter, Greece has been encouraging visitors to pair a city break with a day or two’s skiing. “People can forget that the Greek mainland is one of the most mountainous countries in Europe – we have 19 ski resorts and many of them are close to Athens or Thessaloniki,” said Emy Anagnostopoulou, the Greek National Tourism Organisation’s UK & Ireland Office Director. The growing number of flight options also means Greece is expanding its tourism at the “shoulder” months at the beginning and end of the summer season with a new range of soft adventure options. Many regions and islands in Greece – including Andros and Tinos – are using their mountainous territory to develop and further promote walking trails to attract visitors outside the traditional summer months. At WTM, Minister Kountoura said Greece’s tourism industry had “performed a small miracle” for the nation’s economy, which has grown 2.1% in 2018 and is expected to grow a further 2.5% in 2019, its highest rate of growth for 10 years. During her press conference, Minister Kountoura presented Greece’s new growth plan, aiming to enrich Greece’s offering in high-quality infrastructure and services and make the country’s tourism product “even more competitive in the global travel market”. Greece’s new tourism growth plan includes the launch of special programmes to increase capacity and upgrade the quality of 4- and 5-star hotels and also attract new investments in health and wellness, golf, MICE, sports and recreation, and theme parks NEW ATHENS RIVIERA PROPERTY Santikos Collection has announced the opening of a new property in spring 2019 on the Athens Riviera. The property, set to open in May 2019, will house 33 rooms and suites, rooftop bar and restaurant, an outdoor pool, beautiful gardens and have 180-degree views of the Athens Coast. Designers have been tasked with creating a ‘simple yet luxurious, laid-back space that will attract a young professional audience – both local and international guests, with lively, vibrant, communal spaces’.
INNOVATIONS & TECHNOLOGIES Hotel & Tourism SMARTreport #41 2019 Winter Edition 33 33 WHEN TECHNOLOGY HAS ITS FINGER ON YOUR PULSE For decades, we’ve spoken about keeping a “finger on the pulse” of technology. Today, however, with the advances that are being made in robotics, artificial intelligence and connectivity, one day soon we will be having our pulses taken by friendly robots. Of course, this is already the case with “wearables”, however at this year’s CES show in Las Vegas, one of the world’s biggest consumer electronics events, Samsung launched (among a number of other extraordinary innovations) new lines of robots, including health-bots that will no doubt make their presence felt in the not so distant future in the spa environment, and retail bots that will be very handy in areas such as F&B. Learn more in the following pages! One of Samsung’s new robots launched this year at CES Las Vegas
