News 05.11.18
Greece hails 2018 ‘best ever year’
Corfu is one of Greece’s most popular islands
Following a tumultuous 2016 and recovery in 2017, Greece (EU1000) has gone on to report a record year for tourism in 2018.
Konstantinos Tsegas, secretary general of the Greek National Tourist Office, describes 2018 as “the best year in the history of Greek tourism. “From January to July we
witnessed an increase in international arrivals of almost 15% and 17% in tourism revenue. Until the end of 2018, 32.5 million tourists are expected to arrive in our country, including cruise passengers.” That means an extra 2.1 million extra overseas visitors this year, which Tsegas attributes to the extension of the summer season,
PROMOTIONAL PLANS Mexico calls on culture
Sporting and cultural events will form a key part of Mexico’s (LA100) promotional plans over the next few years.
The destination is scheduled to host annual PGA Golf tournaments and National Football League (NFL) games, leading up to the Fifa World Cup football tournament, which is on the roster for 2026, which Mexico will co-host with the USA and Canada.
Mexico’s tourist industry has been booming in recent years and the country ranked sixth in the world for international arrivals in 2017, with 39.3 million visitors – up by 12% on the previous year. The
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state of Quintana Roo, which includes Cancun, accounted for 43% of these inbound visitors. The most recent campaign by Mexico Tourism Board focused on the Day of the Dead (Dia de Muertos) celebrations with a world tour to promote the annual event featuring legendary characters such as El Charro and the Bride and Groom.
The promotional tour brought a taste of the Day of the Dead parade to cities across Europe, including London, Paris and Berlin, as well as the key North American markets of New York, Chicago, Toronto and Montreal.
Day of the Dead festivities, when local people pay their respects to ancestors, take place across Mexico from late October until early November, with Mexico City hosting the largest parade – attended by an estimated one million people.
Another Mexican icon, the late artist Frida
Kahlo, has been in
the spotlight thanks to an exhibition of
her personal artefacts at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum that has attracted more than 200,000 visitors so far.
The show has been extended for two weeks to November 18.
Events included a special 48-hour opening last
weekend (Nov 2-4), which also
featured a festival to celebrate the Day of the Dead holiday in Mexico.
strengthening of regional airports and improved flight connections, as well as an increase in direct flights to multiple mainland and island destinations.
Airlift from the UK is especially strong, with new routes including Liverpool and Southend into Corfu from Ryanair, as well as Luton-Athens and Manchester-Thessaloniki. Jet2 added an extra six flights per week into Chania from Birmingham, Leeds-Bradford, Manchester and Stansted, as well as Edinburgh to Corfu, Birmingham-Kefalonia and Glasgow-Kos. British Airways also added Heathrow-Preveza and Gatwick-Kos.
Athens and Thessaloniki were
targets this year for short-break traffic and are still a focus for the tourist office’s promotional plan, and investment continues in 2019 on creating more tourism infrastructure. “We aim to establish a more competitive framework to attract strategic investments for integrated resorts, large and medium-sized marinas, the development of new dynamic ports for cruises, new investments in medical and thermal tourism and theme parks,” explained Tsegas.
“We also plan specific zones across the country for developing thematic tourist products such as for health and wellness, Mice, golf and culture.”
MIDWESTERN STATES
Great Lakes’ food focus
Food will be a key ingredient for the Great Lakes USA consortium of Midwestern states (NA140) at this year’s WTM London.
The region, which comprises the states of Michigan, Minnesota, Illinois, Ohio, Wisconsin and Indiana, will showcase regional delicacies including fishboils, cheese curds, Juicy Lucy cheeseburgers and sugar cream pie.
Great Lakes will host tastings and launch a guide to the region’s cuisine, wineries and craft breweries. The region is also set to benefit from a new Aer Lingus route from Dublin to the key gateway of Minneapolis St Paul starting in July 2019.
Other talking points will be the Ryder Cup golf tournament to be held at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin in 2020, and musical tourism. Three new preferred partners – Cleveland, Grand Rapids in Michigan, and Alton in Illinois – have joined the Great Lakes consortium and will attend the trade show.
Local cuisine is in the spotlight
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