Greece promotes its big cities as ideal destinations for a ‘greekend’

The Mediterranean country invites you to ‘end your week like a Greek’ in Athens or Thessaloniki

On 17 January, the Greek Ministry of Tourism and the Hellenic Tourism Organisation (EOT) launched greekend: a new campaign that promotes Athens and Thessaloniki as the ideal destinations for short city breaks. Under the motto “All you want is Greece” and the central message “greekend: End your week like a Greek”, the campaign seeks to attract tourists and offer them an urban weekend full of unique experiences.

Greekend campaign (Source: EOT)

COVID’s impact on urban tourism

One of the main reasons why the Mediterranean country has launched this campaign is to combat the negative impact of COVID. General Secretary of EOT Dimitris Fraggakis commented on this, noting that the outbreak of the pandemic has especially disturbed tourism in big cities:

“The pandemic has negatively impacted urban tourism. In many cases, in fact, it has damaged them disproportionately in relation to other travel destinations in our country. That is why one of the main pillars of EOT’s strategy is the promotion of Greek cities, which have the ability to offer unique City Break experiences.”

According to the campaign, tourists can visit Athens or Thessaloniki and have a carefree weekend, visiting museums, having coffee, eating Greek food, shopping, and taking walks on the beach. Putting all of these experiences together, one can enjoy what the Hellenic Tourism Organisation has named a ‘greekend’.

Greekend campaign (Source: EOT)

Repeating the campaign throughout the year

The campaign will run for around 2 months and target tourists from 10 countries: France, Germany, Denmark, the UK, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden and Israel. In the beginning, its main aim will be to introduce and establish the concept of a ‘greekend’. After this, the campaign will be repeated several times throughout the year.

“This campaign is the first in a series of actions that we will implement, in order to invite visitors to enjoy, safely, an authentic Greek weekend in the big cities of Greece,” shared Minister of Tourism, Vassilis Kikilias.