As the largest tourism event in the Balkans, Philoxenia and Hotelia, were held 10-12 November 2016 in Thessaloniki Exhibition and Congress Centre. Given the significant increase in both the quantitative and qualitative figures of the two exhibitions, their role for the Greek tourism market became even more prominent. More than 20,000 people entered the exhibition centre reaching an increase in the total visitors number of 46% compared to 2015.
What is particularly important as a high level business indicator is the 91% increase in the number of trade visitors that almost doubled while the foreign visitors were also increased by 70%.
More than 5,500 business meetings were conducted between hosted buyers (tour operators and PCOs) and exhibitors during the three days of the exhibition, paving the way for business deals ahead of the 2017 season . A total of 621 exhibitors, 383 hosted buyers from 34 countries and more than 20,000 sq. m. of exhibition completed the profile of Philoxenia and Hotelia, which were the largest in the last five years as far as exhibition space and exhibitors numbers are concerned.
The parallel events program of the two exhibitions was particularly rich and attracted hundreds of commercial visitors and public.
Conference: Re-branding Destinations
The major Conference of Philoxenia was hailed a great success, with hundreds of people, skilled professionals and student filled "Emilios Riadis" Hall in order to attend leading Greek and foreign speakers to analyze the particularly important issue of the branding of tourist destinations, according to modern needs. Philoxenia conference was sponsored by Mouzenidis Travel & Ellinair Group, ACT-American College of Thessaloniki, Domotel (catering) and Transfer for All for transfers.
At the end of the sessions, an interactive workshop "Destination Thessaloniki 2020" was successfully held.
Also, the significant prospects for China for China's tourism market have highlighted the "Outgoing Tourism from China (almost) everything you would like to learn", organized by TIF-Helexpo in cooperation with Tourism Generis. Meanwhile, the parallel events of HOTELIA: DPOINT Spaces, the Green Zero Hotel, the Future Boutique and Rent a Design Room, which, besides their aesthetic excellence, have made very interesting presentations in the field of architecture and tourism. Hotelia had dozens of events for the hospitality industry including the THE ART OF DRINKING Coffee & Spirit, which presented all the modern trends in the industry, and THE ART OF DINING event dining live presentations of global gastronomic trends took also place.
Philoxenia and Hotelia are the official tourism exhibitions of the country and are run under the auspices of the Ministry of Tourism, the Ministry of Macedonia and Thrace, the National Greek Tourism Organization and all the major tourism bodies in the country. The official air carrier of 32nd Philoxenia 2016 was Qatar Airways.
