Venizelos

Greece is gaining broader access to the American tourism market with the resumption of direct flights by Air Canada to Athens' Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport for the new tourism season, as there had been no direct flights from Canada to the Greek capital until recently.

Tourism Minister Vassilis Kikilias stated on Wednesday that tourism stands to get an extra boost this year from the opening of the markets of Australia and China, which were closed in 2022.

If you walk into a tiger's cage, a friend quipped, make sure you don't touch the wild cat's whiskers. Put differently, when you challenge a more intelligent person than yourself to a public debate, do not attempt to underestimate their intelligence; you only risk exposing yourself to ridicule.

Passenger traffic this year at the Athens airport, which last year handled 22.7 million travelers, is expected to exceed the performance of 2019. That figure was up significantly, by 98.3%, compared to 2021, but still was 11.1% short of 2019.

Business and pleasure was at the forefront of Bill Gates' brief stay in Greece. Greek hospitality, the sun and the turquoise waters of the Aegean, in fact, seem to have whetted the investment appetite of the Microsoft co-founder.

High booking rates and increased sales at airports at levels better than 2019, according to the Ministry of Tourism, indicating a very good season for 2022. However, the Minister of Tourism, Vassilis Kikilias is planning legislative initiatives aimed at preserving and promoting traditional elements of Greek tourism that are also a magnet for our foreign visitors.

Eight new destinations and six new airlines are on the air map of Athens. The city is restarting, after two very difficult seasons, as the pandemic "hit" the city break destinations particularly. Travelers who last summer turned to direct connections to smaller tourist destinations, return to Athens, with the city center already full of visitors.

Yesterday was our birthday. On 6 February, 1992, exactly 100 years ago, the newspaper then called Elefthero Vima first hit the stands.

Odysseus Elytis was one of the most important Greeks. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1979. He was one of the select members of the so-called "generation of the nineteen thirties" in the field of artistic creation.

The Greek Health Ministry and the Civil Protection bureau issued a COVID-19 orange alert (moderate risk) today after the appearance and expected spread of the more transmissible Delta variant, which was isolated in India, especially on the island of Crete, which has the most confirmed cases.