With 25 galleries from nine countries, seven parallel projects, 25 participating museums, artists and museum exhibitions, the 1st Art Thessaloniki International Contemporary Art Fair is opening on 1 December, under the organisation of TIF-Helexpo, in cooperation with gallery owner Pantelis Tsatsis, who will also serve as the artistic director of the event. The 1st Art Thessaloniki, to be inaugurated on Thursday, 1 December at 20:00, will last until 4 December and will be deployed in Pavilions 9 and 10 of Thessaloniki International Exhibition Centre.

Art Thessaloniki will take place with the participation of 25 galleries from 9 countries, namely Austria, Greece, France, Japan, Israel, Italy, Russia, Serbia and Turkey, and 25 stands representing museums, institutes, schools and Art Fairs. The artists of honour will be the sculptor Theodoros and the painter Nikos Sachinis, while emphasis will also be placed on Marios Prassinos. The Fair will be complemented by a dynamic, rich schedule of parallel events, including the following museum exhibitions:

– Collector’s eye Ι: including works, engravings and original books by the visual artist Marios Prassinos, the installation by Christos Antonaropoulos, the Kostopoulos collection. Curator: Manos Stefanidis.

– Jewish Museum. Curator: Drorit Gur Arie (Director of Petach Tikva Museum of Art), Tel Aviv.

– outsider art / eccentric art. Curators: Pavlos Vassiliadis, Sania Papa.

– ‘Others – Once – Now’. Curators: Haris Savvopoulos, Louiza Avgita.

– Collector’s eye ΙΙ, contemporary art collection, Aris Stoidis’ collection. Curator: Maria Kenanidou.

During today’s Press Conference, in view of the opening of the 1st Art Thessaloniki, Mr Tassos Tzikas, the President of the national exhibition agency, spoke about the historical relationship between TIF-Helexpo and culture throughout the decades. “We had intended to organise an art fair for some time now, and today we have the pleasure of presenting it”, noted Mr Tzikas, who stressed that networking between international galleries and Greek artists can be achieved through this new Fair.

“This is like a train with 25 galleries starting off on a journey – next year, we’ll be needing more wagons”, noted the artistic director of Art Thessaloniki, Mr Pantelis Tsatsis, adding that the organisation of this exhibition was a vision that sprang from the belief that culture is a driving force for the economy. He stressed that foires are not held just anywhere, but only where gallery owns believe it is worth the effort. “We cannot call Thessaloniki a destination if it has no art to offer”, he stated, underlining the international character of the Fair, its emphasis towards the Orient, as well as its close ties with Greek galleries, not just in Thessaloniki and Athens, but throughout the peripheral regions of the country.

Mr Alexis Tsaxirlis, the deputy general director of the company, stated that Art Thessaloniki will become one of the most internationalised fairs of TIF-Helexpo, with the plan for the event stretching until 2020. “This is a Fair that we had been considering for years and we finally managed to include it in our exhibition calendar”, he stressed, adding that Art Thessaloniki closes a major cycle of exhibitions for 2016, which achieved significant results despite adverse conditions.

The 1st Art-Thessaloniki International Contemporary Art Fair is organized under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Interior (Macedonia-Thrace). The event is being held with the support and cooperation of the Municipality of Thessaloniki and numerous city agencies, which are joining their forces in the effort to promote the exhibition so that it may become an annual institution.

The working hours of the Fair are: Thursday: 17:00-22:00, Friday: 14:00-21:00, Saturday-Sunday: 11:00-21:00.

Admission to the Fair is 5 euros.

01/12/2016 – 19:28

The exhibition ‘duo’ of Philoxenia-Hotelia, which ended yesterday, was established as the largest tourism event in the Balkans. Given the significant increase in the qualitative and quantitative scale of the two exhibitions, their leading role in the region was confirmed in practice.

The total number of visitors welcomed by the two exhibitions rose by 46% compared to last year’s event, with over 20,000 individuals visiting the events, while the number of trade visitors almost doubled, marking a 91% increase, with a 70% increase in hosted buyers.

Over 5,500 B2B meetings were held between trade visitors and exhibitors within just three days, paving the way for the conclusion of business deals. The 621 exhibitors, 383 hosted buyers from 34 countries and over 20,000 square metres of exhibition space covered completed the profile of Philoxenia and Hotelia, which were the largest events held in the last five years.

The ‘menu’ of parallel events held in the context of the two exhibitions was particularly rich, attracting not only trade visitors but the general public as well. The International Tourism Congress ‘[re]branding Destinations: Image making’, held in the context of Philoxenia, was a resounding success, attracting hundreds of participants, mostly young in age, who packed ‘Emilios Riadis’ Hall in order to listen to top Greek and international speakers analyse the particularly important issue of branding of tourism destinations, in accordance with contemporary needs.

The sponsors of the Philoxenia congress were Mouzenidis Travel & Ellinair Group (accommodation), ΑCT-American College of Thessaloniki (coffee break), Domotel (catering) and the Transfer for All company (transports). After the completion of the sessions, the ‘Destination Thessaloniki 2020’ interactive workshop was held and also met with great success.

The seminar titled ‘Outgoing Tourism from China: (almost) everything you’d like to know’, organised by TIF-Helexpo in cooperation with Tourism Generis, presented the significant prospects that the Chinese tourism market has for Greece. Dozens of events of tourism interest were organised by agencies from all over the country in the context of Philoxenia, presenting the identity of Greek tourism and highlighting its need and prospects.

One point of attraction for visitors was the ‘DPOINT Spaces’ thematic section of Hotelia, which featured the green zero hotel, future boutique and rent a design room that, apart from offering aesthetic excellence, were also exceptionally interesting proposals in the fields of architecture and tourism.

The thematic section ‘THE ART OF DRINKING Coffee & Spirit’ of Hotelia included dozens of events presenting all modern trends in the sector, while the section ‘The art of dining’ featured dining events that presented the flavourful character of the event, with live presentations of global gastronomic trends.

Philoxenia and Hotelia were held under the auspices of the Ministry of Tourism, the Ministry of Interior (Macedonia-Thrace), the Greek National Tourism Organisation (EOT), as well as all the major tourism agencies of the country, such as the Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE), the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels (XEE), the Hellenic Association of Travel and Tourist Agencies (HATTA) and the Hellenic Hotel Federation (POX). The official air carrier of the 32nd Philoxenia was Qatar Airways.

22/11/2016 – 16:30

The work of the International Tourism Congress, which marked the beginning of the Philoxenia-Hotelia tourism exhibition ‘duo’, began this morning at the packed ‘Emilios Riadis’ hall of Thessaloniki International Exhibition Centre.

Commencing the work of the Congress, the President of TIF-Helexpo, Mr Tassos Tzikas, noted that Thessaloniki has managed to transform Philoxenia and Hotelia into the largest tourism event not only of the broader region, but of the entire country. Furthermore, he underlined the emphasis placed by the national exhibition agency on tourism, referring to the ‘Greek Travel Show’, the new TIF-Helexpo tourism exhibition to begin in Athens in May.

Addressing participants in the congress, which she characterised as particularly important, the Minister of Tourism, Ms Elena Koundoura, stressed that Greek tourism is growing at twice the rate of international tourism, as the country achieved a growth rate of 7% to 8%, as compared to the international average of 3% to 4%. Ms Koundoura announced from the congress podium that over the course of 18 months, our country managed to attract 140 investment plans for hotels that have either already been licensed or are currently in the licensing stage. She also announced the achievement of another important objective, that of lengthening the tourism period, with tourist traffic continuing in certain regions until November, and stressed that every additional million visitors results in 70,000 to 90,000 new jobs.

The Minister of Tourism was optimistic about our country’s tourism performance this year, and attributed the success of the last two years to the cooperation of the Ministry and Greek National Tourism Organisation (EOT) with the Regions, Local Government, Chambers and private sector, stressing that we are all in the fight of tourism together and must continue working together in the future.

The Deputy Regional Governor for Tourism, Mr Alexandros Thanos, spoke about the efforts of the Region of Central Macedonia for the uniform promotion of the region, spearheaded by Thessaloniki, explaining that the brand of Central Macedonia being continuously enriched and strengthened. In fact, he stressed that during this year’s Philoxenia, the Region of Central Macedonia is highlighting its gastronomic routes and ‘Macedonian Cuisine’.

In turn, the Deputy Minister of Interior (Macedonia-Thrace), Ms Maria Kollia-Tsaroucha, stressed that Northern Greece, with Thessaloniki at its centre, is a historical crossroads of culture, history, religion and art. Speaking about the positive performance of Greek tourism in recent years, she underlined the great effort made by the Ministry of Tourism and Ms Koundoura, nothing that we must not rest on our laurels, but continue the effort to promote the country.

The next speaker at the podium of ‘[re]branding Destinations: Image making’ was the Mayor of Marathon, Mr Ilias Psinakis, who expressed his satisfaction concerning the presence of a youthful audience, and stressed that it is always positive when a city is ‘illuminated’ internationally, as was the case with Thessaloniki through Philoxenia. The Mayor of Marathon also spoke about his initiative to establish the Amphictyony of Ancient Greek cities, which now extends beyond the borders of Greece, stressing that we must ‘redeem’ our rich culture through tourism. Speaking about the efforts made by his own Municipality, he noted that each of us must contribute towards strengthening tourism.

The Deputy Mayor for Tourism and International Relations of the Municipality of Thessaloniki, Mr Spyros Pegas, stated that in five years, Thessaloniki has been transformed from a small, insignificant dot on the map into an internationally recognisable destination, explaining how it all began with the slogan ‘Many Stories One Heart’ and the well-known heart-shaped logo, adding that the Municipality must henceforth ‘rebrand’ history and the narrative it has been using for the city in recent years.

The Balkan city model

During the subsequent thematic section titled ‘The Balkan city model: a common history’, which Mr Pegas coordinated, the methods through which cities in the broader region are trying to attract tourists were presented.

The CEO of the Tourism Organisation of Belgrade, Mr Miodrag Popovic, stated that the belief that the image of a city is what people experience, not what the city says or does, is what his Organisation uses as a basis for the promotion of this destination. Using the slogan ‘Go Belgrade’, tourism stakeholders began to re-invent Belgrade, promoting entertainment, nightlife, youth, history, culture, modern infrastructure, and, above all else, as Mr Popovic noted, the fact that everything in Belgrade is familiar and friendly. These efforts achieved results, since the capital of Serbia has welcomed double the number of foreign visitors in recent years.

Plovdiv, the second largest city in Bulgaria, with 500,000 citizens and 40,000 students, began its rebranding efforts in 2012. Since then, the city has become one of the top European destinations and has significantly increased its overnight stay numbers, in accordance with the Deputy Mayor of European and International Relations of Plovdiv, Mr Stefan Stoyanov. The city’s goal is to welcome over 2 million visitors in 2019.

‘Once in Ohrid always in Ohrid’ was one of the slogans of tourism stakeholders for Ohrid, which, as noted by the representative of the Department of Tourism and Local Economic Development of

the city, Mr Gjorgji Trpeski, offers a unique experience to visitors. He underlined the multiple identities of Ohrid as a vibrant city, as well as a city of culture and history.

In turn, Professor Emel Gonenc Guler, representing the Tourism Promotion Association of Edirne, stated that numerous projects are underway in Edirne, focusing on wine tourism, natural hiking trails and history, making the city more attractive than other destinations in Turkey.

The sponsors of the Philoxenia congress are Mouzenidis Travel & Ellinair Group (accommodation), ΑCT-American College of Thessaloniki (coffee break), Domotel (catering) and the Transfer for All company (transports).

The work of the congress will continue until the afternoon.

22/11/2016 – 16:52

With 621 exhibitors, 383 hosted buyers and over 5,000 pre-arranged B2B meetings, the tourism exhibition ‘duo’ of Philoxenia and Hotelia will begin dynamically on 18 November at Thessaloniki International Exhibition Centre.

More specifically, the 32nd Philoxenia will host 403 exhibitors (as compared to 351 last year) from 16 countries, as well as 217 hosted buyers from 34 countries, of whom 117 are participating individually and the remaining 100 through group delegations. Hotelia will host 218 exhibitors (as compared to 157 last year) from 24 countries (both directly and indirectly), as well as 166 hosted buyers, of whom 66 come from 10 different countries and Greece and the remaining 100 through group delegations. The two exhibitions, which will last until 20 November, will be inaugurated this Friday at 20:00 at ‘I. Vellidis’ Congress Centre by the Minister of Tourism, Ms Elena Kountoura.

During today’s Press Conference, the President of TIF-Helexpo, Mr Tassos Tzikas, expressed the view that the 32nd Philoxenia will be the best of the last five years, stressing that the goal of turning the event into a truly international exhibition is very close to reality. He also spoke about the increased figures of Philoxenia and Hotelia, both at the level of exhibitor and hosted buyer numbers and at the level of exhibition space, as two additional pavilions have been added for each exhibition, and underlined the company’s new tourism endeavour in Athens named ‘Greek Travel Show’. He underlined the fact that from today and until next September, the trade exhibitions of the national exhibition agency

will be broadcasting a single message: the participation of China in the 82nd TIF as the Guest of Honour.

In turn, the Deputy Minister of Interior (Macedonia-Thrace), Ms Maria Kollia-Tsaroucha stressed that, with Thessaloniki at its centre, Northern Greece is a historical crossroads of culture, history, religion and art, a crossroads that boasts exceptional year-round tourism destinations. She added that we must invest in these qualities and expressed the view that this year’s Philoxenia is an excellent opportunity for establishing this new mindset, which will allow us to conquer and keep a leading role in the field of international tourism.

The presence of all tourism regions of Greece – with all 13 of the country’s Regions – at Philoxenia was underlined by the CEO of TIF-Helexpo, Mr Kyriakos Pozrikidis, who made particular reference to the 4,230 B2B meetings scheduled for this event, as well as the 880 scheduled for Hotelia. He also added that, in 2016 to date, Thessaloniki International Exhibition Centre has remained in operation for 275 days.

Ms Voula Patoulidou, Deputy Regional Governor of Thessaloniki and President of the Tourism Promotion and Marketing Agency of Thessaloniki, stressed the contribution of the Agency to the tourism efforts of the national exhibition agency. More specifically, she noted that the Agency has undertaken to take the 120 hosted buyers who will be visiting the city on a tour. She added that the dynamism of Thessalonians is clear and we must do everything in our power to communicate the city’s qualities.

“TIF-Helexpo has paved an illustrious path and we are pleased to be on it, accompanied by all the other agencies”, stated the Deputy Mayor for Tourism and International Relations of the Municipality of Thessaloniki, Mr Spyros Pegas. He stressed that the national exhibition agency is dynamically contributing to the city’s extroversion, noting that Thessaloniki has made exceptional progress in terms of tourism, with its recognisability having reached a high level.

In turn, the Deputy General Director of TIF-Helexpo, Mr Alexis Tsaxirlis, stated that Philoxenia is growing this year, following certain difficulties in the past, and will grow even further, acquiring a more international character. In fact, he stressed that part of the country’s tourism policy is now being made at Philoxenia.

The schedule of parallel events of the exhibition ‘duo’ includes:

• The International Tourism Conference ‘{Re}Branding Destinations: Image making’, to be held on 18 November (at E. Riadis Hall), focusing on the methods and means that must be used in order for the tourism destination to grow in accordance with the dictates of the market. Top speakers from Greece and abroad and competent officials will answer important questions that concern the upgrading of the tourism image. The completion of the conference on Friday afternoon will be followed by a workshop titled ‘Destination Thessaloniki 2020’, where working groups will express their vision regarding the new identity of Thessaloniki in 2020 (city branding). The sponsors of the Philoxenia conference are Mouzenidis Travel & Ellinair Group (accommodation), ΑCT-American College of Thessaloniki (coffee break), Domotel (catering) and the Transfer for All company (transports).
• ‘D POINT Spaces’ at Hotelia include the Green zero hotel (designed by Makridis Associates Architects), the first modular hotel that reflects all the modern practices that lead to a ‘greener’ way of living, the ‘Future Boutique’ (by the MINAS KOSMIDIS – Architecture in Concept firm) for accommodation of high luxury aesthetics and boutique hotels, and the ‘Rent A Design Room’ (designed by Nomen Architects), that does away with the myth that the renovation of rented rooms lacks aesthetics and design.
• The ‘Grow Greek Tourism Online’ seminar, an initiative by Google, in cooperation with the Ministry of Tourism, the Greek National Tourism Organisation (EOT) and the Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE).
• ‘THE ART OF DRINKING’ Coffee & Spirit at Hotelia is an original and innovative section dedicated to the art of preparing coffee, cocktails and beverages.
• The colloquium titled: ‘Outgoing Tourism from China: (almost) everything you’d like to know’.
• The Hotelia Conferences on topics such as ecotourism and ecological building applications, concierge – holding the golden key to successful services in the hotel industry, ranking of tourism lodgings in stars & keys, etc.
• The ‘Study in Thessaloniki’ initiative at Pavilion 13.

Philoxenia and Ηotelia are being held under the auspices of the Ministry of Tourism, the Ministry of Interior (Macedonia-Thrace), the Greek National Tourism Organisation (EOT), as well as all the major tourism agencies of the country, such as the Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE), the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels (XEE), the Hellenic Association of Travel and Tourist Agencies (HATTA) and the Hellenic Hotel Federation (POX). The official air carrier of Philoxenia is Qatar Airways.

Free parking through the Trade Gate will be available for visitors to the two exhibitions.

16/11/2016 – 17:24