For the third year, the Greek National Tourism Organization (GNTO) is organizing a program of familiarization trips which intend to make a global touristic promotion of the country. The project intends to bring 587 foreign bloggers, journalists, and representatives of international travel agencies from 27 different countries in 167 familiarization trips scheduled until July to get to know and promote the 13 different regions of Greece, promoting Greek tourism abroad.

The guidelines of the program are included within the framework of the National and Regional Tourism Policy of the country presenting Greece as a year-round destination. A project that is being implemented with enormous success and that sees the participation of the different regions and municipalities as well as actors from the touristic private sector.

The first part of the Familiarization Travel Program, approved by the Greek National Tourism Organization aims to promote less known Greek destinations to the global travel community, but it also includes a targeted promotion of different thematic touristic proposals which intend to attract visitors throughout the year.

Some of the important news outlets participating in the project include journalists from Great Britain (Travel Chanel, BBC, The Daily Telegraph, Sunday Times, Walk Magazine and Evening Standard), France (France 2, France 5), the German publishing group Tagesspiegel, the Austrian newspapers Krone Zeitung & Die Presse, the Belgian magazine Exclusief, the Romanian National Geographic Traveler, Romania’s state TV channel TVR. Private channels such as Antenna 1, Antenna 2, Canal D, Prima TV have also been invited to attend the trips. Bloggers from England, Germany, and Denmark, as well as leading travel agencies from Frace, Japan, China, Poland, The Netherland, Israel, and Romania, will also be part of the planned visits.

Different Chinese travel agents, a Chinese travel magazine Travel Agent Magazine as well as a blogger with over 4 million followers on the social media will be taking part in the first Thematic Aegean cruise. Finally, CNN Travel will be hosted on the islands of Chios and Patmos so as to work on the promotion of both destinations as gastronomic and cultural places to visit in Greece.

Source: Gabi Ancarola/greekreporter