Athens International Airport ‘Eleftherios Venizelos’, one of the most modern airports in the world in operation since 2001, greatly boosted the organization of international conferences.

Conference tourism is extremely interdependent: it requires of course a high level of background support from the host country, and at the same time it can actively contribute to improving the overall standard of services in the region. It is logical that a country chosen as a conference location should be involved in the cultural ‘product’, giving the public, both residents and visitors, the chance to experience human achievement and innovative thought.

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Many of those films have become “classic” and epitomize the Greek spirit via romance, passion, defiance, tragedy, forbidden love, guilty pleasures, and all else in between.

The international success of films such as “Zorba the Greek”, “Never on Sunday”, “Stella”, “Ilya Darling” and “Boy on a Dolphin” had the participation of all-star casts and directors and went on to receive Academy Award nominations. They continue to be favourites amongst cinephiles and are part of the annual Greek Film Festival at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. In addition to foreign movies, Greek cinema holds a special place with global audiences, highlighted by the golden age of cinema during the 50s and 60s, with elements of film noir that remain timeless.


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According to the association, the Greek capital recorded a rise in arrivals during the January-May 2014 period in comparison to the same period last year, exactly due to the fact that the Greek capital’s hotels have the lowest – and very competitive – prices in Europe. During the January-May period, Athens recorded a 25.4 percent increase in occupancy and a 2.7 percent rise in the average room rate compared to 2013.

In the announcement, the hotel association also reminded that the Greek capital had lost 40 percent of hotel revenue and suffered the loss of 87 hotel units since 2008. “The hotel prices in Athens are 24.9 percent lower than the prices of 2008, which was the last good year for Athenian hoteliers,” the Greek capital’s hotel association noted.

The association added that the effort to restore occupancy and prices to levels that ensure the viability of the city’s hotels, must be a common goal as it will ensure job growth and benefit a number of sectors and the Greek capital’s economy in general.

To read more, please visit news.gtp.gr

Wine & Spirits magazine has released its ‘2015 Wineries of the Year’ list and it contains heartening news for the Greek wine industry. Three of the country’s wine producers have made the list, rubbing shoulders with some of the biggest names in wine the world over.

“Gaea,” “Estate Argyros” in Santorini and “Gerovassiliou” in Epanomi, Thessaloniki made the list.

“Our blind tasting panels assessed more than 14,500 new wine releases this year—a record number—making the selection of our Top 100 Wineries that much more competitive,” says Wine & Spirits editor and publisher Joshua Greene.

To read more, please visit thetoc.gr/eng

According to Greek mythology, the god Apollo and goddess Artemis were born on Delos, making it a sacred island. Hence the famous Temple of Apollo on the island.

Archaeologists found 16 terracotta pots and remains of a kiln embedded in the sea floor, similar to workshops found in Pompeii and Herculaneum, according to the ministry. The large stones in front of the workshop probably mean that they belong to the settlement’s waterfront.

Other lined stones suggest walls of structures, reinforcing the theory that this was indeed a settlement. In the past, archeologists believed that the ruins were port facilities.

The new search that was conducted by divers from the National Hellenic Research Foundation and the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities, led to different conclusions. Rather than a dock, a pottery workshop and other buildings were once there. The structure remains were found in shallow waters, less than one meter deep.

To read more, please visit greekreporter.com

By Philip Chrysopoulos

The initiative was launched 18 months ago with the selection of the first 32 cities to participate. Today the second group of 35 cities around the world to join the network were announced, with the candidacies of Thessaloniki and Athens both proving successful. In total 331 cities had applied to join the programme.  

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t’s pretty embarrassing when what used to be one of the world’s most stirring traditions has devolved into a game of “not it.” As The Washington Post  reported this week, “Krakow, Poland, Stockholm, St. Moritz and Davos, Switzerland, and Munich, all former candidates to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, have taken themselves out of the running.”