25.209 visitors who flocked at the Thessaloniki International Exhibition Centre from 10 to 12 November

Double the number of foreign trade visitors to the Philoxenia

 

The Philoxenia-Hotelia and Real Estate Expo North exhibitions, which from 10 to 12 November gave a dynamic pulse to the Thessaloniki International Exhibition Centre, were completed with increased attendance compared to last year. The total number of visitors amounted to 25,209, which underlines the importance of the three exhibitions in tourism (Philoxenia), hotel equipment, catering and cafeteria (Hotelia) and real estate (Real Estate Expo North). In fact, this year’s Philoxenia welcomed twice as many foreign trade visitors as last year, proving that it is a timeless appointment for the domestic and foreign tourist market of the wider region.

 

An encouraging element is that the exhibitors were very satisfied and expressed their willingness to participate next year. During the three-day event, more than 3,000 quality meetings of hosted buyers with Philoxenia and Hotelia exhibitors took place.

 

At Philoxenia the Honoured Country was Bulgaria – represented institutionally by the Minister of Tourism, Mrs. Zaritsa Dinkova – which presented all its popular tourist destinations.

 

 

The programme of this year’s parallel events of Philoxenia-Hotelia was extended and very interesting.

 

Seventy parallel events educated and informed Philoxenia visitors and kept the interest of the public and trade visitors.

Speakers and participants of the Philoxenia Forum 2023, which had the theme “Seeking the balance: circular economy-hyper-tourism-climate change”, left with the best impressions. The 30 renowned speakers presented the challenges of ultra-tourism and the impact of climate change on the tourism product. The Forum was organised under the auspices of the Department of Management of Organisations, Marketing & Marketing. The Forum was held under the auspices of the IHU’s Marketing, Marketing and Tourism Department and was sponsored by Fraport Greece.

 

Among the events stood out the musical tribute with songs by Mikis Theodorakis with poetry by Tasos Livaditis and Nikos Gatsos, which was organized by the Mikis Theodorakis Museum of Zatounas, TIF-HELEXPO and the Municipality of Gortynia, with the support of the Regional Union of Municipalities of the Peloponnese and sponsored by EDIL, HENGAZ and TILEMATIKI.

 

Hotelia was also rich in events, in the framework of which the thematic sections All About Gastronomy and All About Café were organised. The parallel All About Gastronomy gastronomy events entitled “Local Greek Tastes” were dedicated this year to the promotion of the local character of each region and the creation of an integrated tourist experience through gastronomy. In the specially designed dining area at Pavilion 9, 8 masterclasses were held, where visitors had the opportunity to learn about and taste the exquisite dishes prepared by Chef Giorgos Psyllos and his team, using the products of the 17 producers who participated in the event. The sponsor of “Local Greek Tastes” was Torre, while the company ChefStories was responsible for its organization.

 

The thematic section All About Café, organized by Valantis Lamprianidis, WCE Certified Judge & Coffee Business Consultant of Valenio, was also successful. The exhibitors reported that they had substantial footfall and made contacts with professionals in the field, and exchanged interesting information on the evolution of coffee nowadays. The visitors, on the other hand, were very happy, as they tasted different varieties of coffee and attended interesting presentations. Meanwhile, the LATTE ART THROWDOWN 2023 competition was also successfully completed with the Grand Sponsor Barista’s Gold of Nounou and Sponsor of the Mechanical Equipment the company Eurogat. The first and second place were won by Nikos Adamakos and Thanasis Bastanis respectively.

 

The 2nd Real Estate North, which was attended by dozens of representatives from real estate agencies, construction companies, digital services companies and law firms, was visited by more than 2,000 professionals from Greece and abroad. In fact, representatives from the Greek real estate market, professional visitors and foreign investors held more than 100 B2B business meetings with the invited investors through the hosted buyers program. The 3rd Real Estate Forum was also organised in the framework of the exhibition.

 

431 exhibitors in Philoxenia–Hotelia and international character

Philoxenia and Hotelia attracted a total of 431 participants from the entire spectrum of the tourism industry. Specifically, in Philoxenia the direct exhibitor participation was 211 and the indirect exhibitor participation was 90 (301 exhibitors in total), an increase of 30% compared to last year’s event. There were 17 countries of origin of the exhibitors at Philoxenia: Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria -which is the Honoured Country- Turkey, Serbia, Albania, Armenia, Bosnia, Poland, Slovakia, Portugal, Iran, Georgia, Jordan, Luxembourg, Philippines and Kosovo.

 

 

The national participants of Philoxenia were the Honoured Country, Bulgaria (with direct participation of the Ministry of Tourism and headed by the Minister of Tourism, Mrs. Zaritsa Dinkova and with participants from Varna, Bansko, Sofia and Veliko Tarnovo), Cyprus, Georgia, Serbia (with participation from Belgrade, Sokobanja and the Serbian Republic of Bosnia), Turkey (participation from the Municipality and Chamber of Commerce of Smyrna) and Albania (participation from the Korce region).

 

Hotelia had 130 exhibitors, with direct foreign participation from Turkey and indirect participation from 17 countries, and the number of exhibitors was up 22% compared to last year.

 

Among the exhibitors of Philoxenia and Hotelia were the Ministry of Tourism, the Greek National Tourism Organization (under whose auspices the two exhibitions were organized), tourist destinations, hotels, airlines and shipping companies, tourist agencies, construction companies, technology, furniture, construction, equipment and renovation, which were addressed to the tourism sector from all the regions of the country and the most important institutional bodies, such as XEE, SETE, HATTA, POX, HAPCO (under whose auspices the exhibition was held).

There was also a significant increase in direct entries, with the most important new entries being SKYEXPRESS, for the first time, SEAJETS, GRECOTEL, Easy Hotelier and 12 of the 13 Regions of the country, as well as municipalities from all the tourist regions.

 

 

Philoxenia welcomed 101 individual foreign trade visitors (Hosted Buyers) from 34 countries, while Hotelia welcomed 13 individual Hosted Buyers from Greece, Cyprus and Serbia. In addition, a business delegation of 50 people from North Macedonia and delegations from Bulgaria visited the two fairs.

 

Sponsors of the Philoxenia-Hotelia exhibitions were National Bank (Official Bank), Aegean (Official Airline Sponsor), PPC (Official Energy Provider), NOVA (Official Telecommunications Provider), Epsilon Hospitality (Official IT Partner) and Autohellas Hertz (Official Transportation Provider). Supporters were the Thessaloniki Tourism Organization, the Thessaloniki Convention Bureau, the Association of Tourist Offices of Macedonia-Thrace and the Association of Hoteliers of Thessaloniki.