Winter plan to lure Northern Europeans

The plan to extend the tourist season beyond October to November and, under certain conditions, to the rest of the winter months, is taking shape, based on Greece’s growing international appeal and the lure of energy savings for Northern Europeans who opt to spend part of this winter in Greece.

It practically entails the investment by the Greek National Tourism Organization of a record €20 million in collaborative advertising campaigns with major tour operators and airlines in order to market Greece as an ideal winter destination.

This is the program announced by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at the Thessaloniki International Trade Fair, and it is something on which Tourism Minister Vassilis Kikilias, has been working for several months. He was in Germany and Austria this week, and he will be in Sweden and France next week.

All indications are that Greece is winning its gamble of extending the winter tourist season via the lure of warmer weather and the energy savings that this can provide to pensioners and other categories of travelers in the north, Kikilias tells Kathimerini.

Already participating in some capacity are the German airline Lufthansa and all of its subsidiaries (Eurowings, Swiss, Brussels, Austrian etc), the TUI Group, Der Touristik, Apollo, which specializes in travel for the Scandinavian markets, Seniorenreisen, whose clientele is dominated by Austrian pensioners’ associations, Ideal Tours, Springer Reisen, and others with whom the minister has already been in contact.

Kikilias said the aim is to maintain all scheduled existing flights from Northern and Central Europe to Greece – which are already increased compared to the same period in 2019 – and to further increase them also during the winter months, especially for the period November-March. The initiative includes the financing of a wide-ranging co-promotion program for travel to Greece during the winter and is being developed in cooperation with Athens International Airport and Fraport-Greece, which are groups that are adding their own incentive programs for airlines to the effort.

Along with this massive promotion of Greek destinations, and in particular Crete, Rhodes, Kos, Athens and Thessaloniki, the Ministry of Tourism is also ensuring the availability of a minimum number of hotel beds in the above island destinations.