June 2002

POSIDONIA 2002 A SUCCESS
Posidonia 2002, the 18th biennial international shipping show held in the port of Piraeus, was termed a success on all counts. An estimated 10,000 shipping executives from around the world filled Athens hotels to attend the five-day exhibition. Some 1,500 companies from 79 countries were represented by pavilions.
George Anomeritis, the Minister of Merchant Marine, officially opened the show at the Piraeus Port Authority Exhibition Center (OLP). His speech centered on government concessions, primarily recent tax reductions within the industry.
Posidonia has always been centered in the port of Piraeus, since Greeks are the top operators in world-wide shipping. They operate more ships and cargo-carrying capacity than any other national group.
It was noted that Greek ship owners have embarked on a fleet renewal program, with over $20 billion invested in new vessels.
Greek interests now control some 3,500 ocean-going ships, plus some 234 more presently under construction.
There are 500 Greek-flag vessels in service within the Aegean, of which 400 are on regularly-scheduled ferry services. Of these latter 36 high-speed ships (at an estimated $3 billion construction cost) have been introduced within the past few years.
In addition to the Greek flag, Greek ship owners also utilise some 45 foreign flags for their operations.
Some 112 receptions and similar events were held during the run of Posidonia.

RECOGNITION OF TOURISM TO GREECE BY CHINA
The recognition of Greece as an approved tourist destination for citizens of the People's Republic of China is a positive factor for future tourism. The Association of Greek Tourist Enterprises (SETE) has suggested that for this to be successful direct air links between Greece and China must be established. And, parallel to this, the Hellenic National Tourism Organization (HNTO) should open tourist information offices in Beijing and Shanghai.
The convenience of issuing visas in China is another situation to be resolved.

BIGGER PARTICIPATION IN EIBTM
This year the EIBTM, leading incentive and meetings travel show held in Geneva, had greater participation than ever before in its 15 year history. There were more than 3,000 exhibitors from 104 countries.
Greece had a larger representation as well, with 20 co-exhibitors in the HNTO pavilion as compared with 11 last year.
Some 6,000 professional visitors (as hosted buyers) attended the EIBTM.

GREECE EARNS MORE BLUE FLAGS
This year a record number of 354 beaches and seven marinas in Greece have been awarded 'blue flags' by the European Union. These awards are made as the result of tests for cleanliness of bathing water and beaches, safety standards and high standards of environmental protection. These awards are three more than last year.
The island of Crete earned the most, with 76 in number.
For the first time since the awards were inaugurated in 1987, eight beaches in the greater Athens area earned blue flags. These are Vouliagmeni, Asteras, Alimos, Anavissos, Edem, Varkiza, Nea Makri and Lagonissi.

NEW AIRLINE FOR GREECE
Astraeus is the name of a new airline linking Athens with London and Manchester in the United Kingdom. Service was inaugurated in March of this year. The airline is named after the Greek mythological character who was 'father' of the stars and the four winds.
At present Astraeus, which is of the low-cost variety of airlines, operates with four Boeing aircraft, two 737-300 and two 737-700.

FIVE STAR HOTELS FOR THREE STAR COSTS
Thanks to the world-wide downturn in business and air travel in general, which has been pinpointed to economy drives as well as increased security, holiday makers can stay at a choice of some five star hotels at three star prices.
Major hotel chains, including Hyatt, Hilton, Ritz-Carlton, Four Seasons and Fairmont have slashed rates as much as 50 percent, with some offerings as little as $50 a night.
As one example, Hilton has deals at its hotels in London, Brussels and Berlin.
In the U.S.A. Leading Hotels of the World offer savings of up to 40 percent in Manhattan.
The deluxe Shangri-La hotels and resorts has announced a 'rate break' at 38 of its properties in the Far East. These vary from $50 in Penang to $100 in Singapore and $60 in Fiji.
Hyatt Regency is asking $90 for Orlando, and $150 for Los Angeles.
One example cited in Greece is on the island of Crete: seven nights for 119 pounds sterling.
Many bargains can be found on the web sites www.lastminute.comand, www.laterooms.com.

ART PROMOTION OF GREECE
Within the general framework of promoting tourism to Greece Akis Tsohatzopoulos, Minister of Development, has invited eight Russian artists to Thessaloniki to paint characteristic places and monuments of the city. These are to be put on display during the next, the Russian international tourist fair, scheduled to be held in Moscow in March of 2003.
The notion is that this unusual display of art may inspire more tourists from Russia to visit Greece.

ROYAL OLYMPIC POSITIONS SHIP IN THESSALONIKI
Royal Olympic Cruises has positioned the “Olympia Voyager”, introduced in June of 2000, in Thessaloniki. This new vessel, listed as the world's fastest cruise ship (at 30 knots) by Lloyd's Cruise International, is to operate a new series of seven-day cruises, as of July 1.
With Monday departures, these cruises include calls at Mykonos, Patmos, Kusadasi (for Ephessus), Rhodes, Crete, Santorini, Piraeus and Istanbul.
The Olympia Voyager is of 25,000 tonnage, with cabin space for 800 passengers, spacious deck space and many facilities including a gym, mall, library, spa with sauna, several bars and a casino.

MOVIE TOURS OF NEW YORK CITY
Something new in tours has been introduced in New York City. These are guided, two-hour Movie Scene Bike Tours. Centered in Central Park these tours feature motion picture locations from such films as "When Harry Met Sally," "Home Alone," "Wall Street," and "Rosemary's Baby." These were created and are operated by Apple Tours of New York at a cost of $24 per person.
There are similar tours of locations for various television series produced in New York, including "Friends," "Seinfeld," "The Cosby Show," and a special tour of "The Sopranos" locations. Called "On Location Tours," these are operated by Manhattan TV Tours, and are priced at $20 per person.
More specific information is available on www.nycvisit.com.

NEW G.M. FOR ATHENAEUM INTERCONTINENTAL
Michael Koth has been named as general manager for the Athenaeun InterContinental Hotel in Athens. An executive of InterContinental Hotel and Resorts for 16 years, he comes to Athens from the Forum Hotel in Berlin.
Born and educated in Germany, the new executive is 40 years old, married and has two sons.
The hotel has been undergoing a complete renovation program of its 543 rooms and suites. The Athenaeum Conference Center, and other facets, with completion scheduled for the end of 2003.
The InterContinental hotel chain is comprised of 130 units with a total of 45,000 rooms.

TRAVEL PLAN COMMERCIAL NETWORKING
Eurostar S.A./Travel Plan organized a two-day meeting of "chosen collaborators" of north and south Greece, held at Hotel Portaria in Portaria in Pelion. Many professionals in travel attended, including representatives of Around the World, Alkyon Travel Service, Economou Travel, Efilial Travel, InterArgo Travel, Konstantinidis Travel, Mavroeidis Travel, Moreas Travel, Terzis Travel, Travel Quest and Yanna Tours as well as Travel Plan executives.
A new Travel Plan Selected Collaborator was added to the Travel Plan commercial network InterArgo Travel, which will be servicing the central Athens areas of Ambelokipi, Pangrati, Ilissia and Vyron.

SINGAPORE AIRLINES WINS OAG AWARD
Singapore Airlines (SIA), for the fourth time, has won the OAG prize as Airline of the Year. In addition to being named Airline of the Year, Singapore was also named Best Airline of Asia, Best Airline of the Pacific, and the airline with the Best Executive/Business Class.
During the last 20 years of OAG Awards Singapore has been awarded first and second place prizes 17 times. Far more than any other airline.
The OAG awards are based on questionnaires which are answered by business travellers from all over the world.
Parallel to these citations, Singapore was voted best airline by readers of the Belgian magazine Voyages/Voyages. And, too, SIA won the accolade as Best Airline servicing the Middle East during a recent trade-show in Dubai.

SUPERFAST LINKS SCOTLAND AND BELGIUM
Superfast Ferries has inaugurated new ferry routes between the port of Rosyth in Edinbourg, Scotland, and the port of Zeebrugge in Belgium. The service is performed by the new Superfast and Superfast vessels.
There was an enthusiastic reception for Superfast in Rosyth on the launching of the new service. An official ceremony was held with such personalities as Jack McConnell, prime minister of Scotland, the British Minister of Finance Gordon Brown, and Georgios Anomeritis, the Greek Minister of Merchant Marine, on hand.
There had been a competition of some 42 companies to undertake this new service. The travel time between the two ports is set at 17 and a half hours, due to the superior speed of 30 knots of the new ships.
Superfast has already set up offices of representation and sales at both ports.
The luxurious ships Superfast and Superfast had been delivered by Howaldswerke Deutsche Werft shipyards of Kiel (in Germany) in January and February of this year. Each can accommodate 626 passengers and 110 trucks and 115 private cars. Facilities include lounges, restaurants and bars, a casino, electronic games center a Toyland, boutiques and shops and meeting rooms.
New foundations for port services were created at Rosyth, at an estimated cost of 12 million pounds sterling, and the new route is also financed by the European Union in its community program.

OLYMPIC AND AEGEAN ELIMINATE SPECIAL FARES
Olympic Airways and Aegean Airlines, in tandem, are eliminating all special fares within Greece and cutting sales commissions. Specifically seven special fares were abolished, and commissions were dropped from 9.24% to 6.94%.
The elimination of special fares is being contested by in legal actions as a breach of free enterprise.
At present, pending court rulings, airfares are more expensive.

FILM STAR YACHT AVAILABLE FOR CHARTERS
Film fans can now charter the luxury yacht on which Richard Burton romanced Elizabeth Taylor.
The Kalizma, a 165 foot Edwardian motor yacht which sleeps ten and has a crew of eight, was bought by the Hollywood couple in 1967. The boat has undergone a three million dollar renovation, according to the company Cavendish White which is handling bookings.
The Kalizma was named for Burton's children, Kate (now appearing on the stage on Broadway), Liza and Maria.
The dining room is furnished with antiques, the main bedroom has a four-poster bed, and there are several works of art aboard, including paintings by van Gogh, Monet and Picasso.
The Kalizma is based in Malta, and charters at eight thousand pounds sterling a day.

BLUE STAR FERRIES ADDS NEW SHIP
Blue Star Ferries has announced the arrival from Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Company Ltd. the newly built Blue Star Naxos, which has already been put into service in the Cycladic islands routing. The regular routing is Piraeus to Paros, Naxos, Santorini, and Amorgos.
The new Blue Star Naxos has a speed of 26 knots, can accommodate 1,500 passengers, and space for 240 private cars or a combination of 35 trucks and 104 cars. It also has 38 cabins with 132 berths.
The new vessel makes for three new ships put into service by Blue Star Ferries on Cycladic island services.
Earlier this year Blue Star Ferries, a division of Strintzis Lines, took possession of another new vessel, the Blue Star Paros, which is operating a Piraeus-Paros-Naxos-Santorini schedule. It is a sister ship of the new Blue Star Naxos.

WEAVING THE GREEK MYTHS
The Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens, in cooperation with the French Institute of Athens, is hosting a special exhibition dedicated to the art of tapestry, titled "Weaving the Greek Myths." The exhibition has been scheduled to run from June 13 through August 31, in the new wing of the museum, at No. 8, Megaron Stathatou.
Masterpieces of French tapestry, dating from the 17th and 18 the centuries, are from the rich collection of Petit Palais, Museum of Art of Paris.
The pieces that have been selected draw their inspiration from Greek mythology and ancient history. The themes are based on original designs of French and Flemish artists such as Charles Le Brun (1619-1690), Jean van Orley (1665-1735), Augustin Coppens (1668-1740), and Francois Boucher (1703-1770) and are presented in Athens for the first time. They are woven with wool and silk.
Episodes depicted include those of Ulysseus, Helen of Troy, Achilles, love affairs of the gods and also themes from the history of Alexander the Great.

HELLENIC TOURS EXPANDS OFFERS
Hellenic Tours, one of the veteran travel agencies of Greece, has created a new department named Kuoni Holidays in Greece. This new department addresses the Greek market, promoting better-known Greek resorts.
The areas covered by Kuoni include the islands of Crete, Rhodes, Kos, Mykonos, Santorini, and the Pelopennese and Halkidiki. Chosen hotels include 3,4, and 5 star categories.
Kuoni Travel is one of the world's largest tourist organizations, with networks in five continents with some 7,500 employees.

FORTUNE AND SARONIC CRUISE JOIN CRUISES
Fortune Maritime Enterprises, Inc., manager of the Mts. Atlantis, and the Saronic Cruises, manager of the Mts. Kallisti, have founded a joint service, Fortune and Saronic Cruises.
The new joint service operates both vessels on one-day cruises from Crete to Santorini.

INAUGURATE “OLYMPIC EXPLORER” OF R.O.C.
Impressive inauguration ceremonies were held in Piraeus for Royal Olympic Cruises new vessel the “Olympic Explorer”. Among the personalities present included Vangelis Papathanasiou, 'godfather' of the “Olympic Explorer”, Giorgos Anomeritis, Minister of Merchant Marine, Yannis Patellis, president of , president of the Cruise Ship Owners Association Andreas Potamianos, and officials of Royal Olympic.
The “Olympic Explorer” is operating seven day cruises to such diverse destinations as Corfu, Venice, Dubrovnik, Katakolon, Istanbul and Mykonos.

TAXI NOTICES AT ATHENS AIRPORT
At the initiative of Yannis Patellis, president of the Hellenic National Tourism Organization (HNTO), notices are to be posted near taxi loading stations at the Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport with special police telephone numbers to report taxi violations and complaints.

PROMOTE ATHENS IN CONNECTION WITH NEW AIR SERVICE TO THE U.K.
With the introduction of the new thrice-weekly air service by British Airways between Athens and Birmingham the capital city of Greece and its many attractions were featured on a local radio station for an entire week.
Two producers of radio station BRMB spent a week exploring various aspects of Athens and transmitting their impressions live back to Birmingham on a daily three-hour program. The key sites of Athens along with the resorts and beaches of Attica were included in the commentary.
Birmingham is the second largest city of the United Kingdom, with some one million inhabitants while the surrounding areas within an hour from the airport swelling with some 15 million population.

THAI AIRWAYS WINS NEW AWARDS
Thai Airways International PCL has won several awards of merit, with top prizes in three important international competitions. These are the 14th Freddie Award, the Outstanding Brand Performance Platinum Award 2002 and the 37th Publications Design Competition.
In the 14th annual Freddie Awards, centered on frequent flyer programs, the Royal Orchid Plus (ROP) of Thai was voted first for excellent services offered by more than 221,000 members of such programs. In categories of Best Mileage Program and Best Webpage, Thai was voted tops.
Also for the third consecutive year Thai was awarded the Outstanding Brand Platinum Award 2002 by readers of the popular Reader's Digest Magazine.
Further, Thai Magazine Sawasdee, the in-flight periodical of the airline, won first prize in Designing of Main Article category.

GLOBAL AIRPORT MONITOR 2002 DUBAI, SINGAPORE, COPENHAGEN LEAD - STRONG PERFORMANCE FOR ATHENS EL. VENIZELOS
The latest results of 's Global Airport Monitor show Dubai, Singapore Changi and Copenhagen lead the way in the top three positions in Overall Passenger Satisfaction. The Dubai airport is perceived to be the "best-in-class" out of the 52 reported by both business and leisure passengers for Overall Passenger Satisfaction, followed by Singapore.
This year, the Atlanta Hartsfield, tops the field in this category for Overall Passenger Satisfactionin, in the new airport size category of over 40 million passengers per annum.
The Global Airport Monitor conducted 80,000 interviews at 52 major airports world-wide, for a wide range of customer service attributes on passenger satisfaction. Particular features of this year's report are the improvement seen in Overall Passenger Satisfaction ratings, by many airports, even amongst the top performers. This reflects continuous efforts in focusing on 'Excellence' in customer service.
Significant improvements in the overall service ratings were observed for San Francisco, Dusseldorf, Madrid, Singapore Changi and Vancouver, all ranking within the top 10 in terms of most improved airports over 2001.
At a global level, Dubai secures its 'top of the class' position for Overall Passenger Satisfaction and for a further 17 service items. Singapore Changi is perceived to have the best Ease of making connections with other flights, whilst new entrant Bermuda has the best ratings for Courtesy, helpfulness of airport staff.
Newly built airports Incheon, the international Seoul airport and Athens Eleftherios Venizelos perform very strongly in their first year of operations and rank within the top 10 for overall service. Other new additions to the top 10 are new entrants Dubai and Bermuda.

LUFTHANSA PREVIEWS CATERING ALOFT
Lufthansa hosted a buffet lunch at the Lufthansa Senator and Business Lounge at Athens International Airport for the travel trade and press, to preview new catering aloft, and new flight attendant uniforms. Two Greek members of Lufthansa cabin crews were flown in from Frankfurt to explain all in their mother tongue.

FROM MY NOTEBOOK - BY CONNIE SOLOYANIS
- Tourism to Greece in general is down, with some island hotel-resorts reporting occupancy rates (in May) as low as only 23 percent of capacity. Many hoteliers now pin their hopes on Greek tourists to fill their rooms this year.
- As part of the detailed planning for the Olympic Games of 2004 to be held in Greece, some 600 large olive trees are being uprooted from the Markopoulos area to be preserved and to be replanted after August of 2004.
- The government campaign to curb smoking in Greece has included having young ladies asking male pedestrians on the streets of Athens if they smoke in advance of a short lecture against such and distribution of literature.
- Enterprising Greek ship owners utilise some 45 foreign flags on convenience to affect drastic economies in operations world-wide.
- At last count there were at least 400 ships operating as regularly scheduled ferries in the Aegean Sea.
- So called legalized gambling has become the top earner in business, and increasingly a factor in some tourism. It is also becoming a top social problem, in some instances bigger than drugs and alcohol.
- Among the many marathon runs staged around the world commemorating the original in ancient Greece, the latest is also the highest. This is at Lake Tahoe, in Nevada, where part of the run is at an elevation of 6,900 feet above sea level.
- San Jose, California, is now home to the new Hellenic Heritage Museum, situated on a 14 acre site. Exhibits include Greek culture, language, arts, literature, music and cooking. series of seminars are planned as well as small scale concerts and instruction of the instruments of bouzouki.
- Americans who go abroad prefer Europe as a destination, overwhelmingly. On a typical year some 50,000 may travel to Africa, 300,000 to the Far East, and five million to Europe.
- Commercial air traffic between the U.S.A. and Europe, still below the levels of September 11, is rising, according to the Association of European Airlines, which reported such traffic was off some ten percent from the previous year in the last quarter. Earlier it had been down over thirty percent.
- Code sharing between airlines is increasing, perhaps as one way to stay aloft. Among recent such arrangements this year has been Lufthansa, which has made arrangements with both Air New Zealand and LOT Polish Airlines.
- Incidentally, it may not be a surprise to learn that the Boeing aircraft company is Americas biggest exporter.
- Indications are that all-inclusive holidays are gaining favour and are to be expanded.
- Major hotel chains, such as Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt and Four Seasons, have become involved with time-share programs.
- Hotel owners have filed a legal protest over the proposed star system of categorizing hotels in Greece, claiming that the system will violate free competition.
- Following the general trend of economy corporations are now planning all various international meetings to be shorter and smaller.
- The top ten travel destinations according to statistics of the World Tourism Organization, in order of popularity, are as follows: France, Spain, U.S.A., Italy, China, United Kingdom, Mexico, Canada, Poland, Austria.
- If you missed the European Union report on population, be apprised that deaths outpace births in Greece and the Greek population of the country is dwindling. Increases in overall population is due to increasing immigration.
- Wisdom Department:
The only substitute for good manners is fast reflexes.
If at first you do not succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried.
When everything is going your way, you are in the wrong lane and going in the wrong direction.
There is a right way and a wrong way to do everything. You can tell the difference easily: The right way takes longer, is more difficult, and costs more.