This is Athens? Authentic neighbourhoods, vibrant nightlife, wonderful wine, and windsurfing just minutes from the city? It’s a new view that city tourism officials want to share to Canadians more familiar with the city’s historical bona fides and credentials as a jumping off point for the Greek Islands.

Indeed, the Athens Development and Destination Management Agency, which has recently engaged representation in Canada, is eager to show visitors from this country – which numbered 160,000 (and 300,000 throughout Greece) in 2019 before the pandemic – that the Greek capital is worthy of spending a few days instead of simply passing through.

Through the prism of “This Is Athens,” the city’s official online visitors guide and new international brand, Canadians are invited to discover a city beyond its famed historical sites, museums, and antiquities.

Written by journalists based in Athens, the guide is intended to “identify just what the spirit of Athens is and why people keep coming back year after year,” says Tyler Boersen, spokesperson for This is Athens.

To that end, the guide offers cultural tips on the best galleries, restaurants, coffee shops, etc.; plus in-depth articles on contemporary subjects such as how to be a digital nomad in the city and what’s happening on the local hip hop scene.

There is also a cultural calendar, suggested off-the-beaten track activities, podcasts and other digital experiences, and even multi-day sightseeing itineraries guaranteed to “take the pulse of the city.”

“We’re giving a particular spin that is relevant because you know you’re going to get the best information, filtered by people who are in the know,” says Boersen, who points out that “a lot of people come to Athens to see the Acropolis and a few museums and then go to an island.”

Observing that much of the city radiates out from the iconic ruins, including the Parthenon, on the central hilltop, he says, “We’re trying to pull people beyond the Acropolis into the neighbourhoods. Each one has a different vibe that would attract a different kind of visitor.”

Speaking to Travel Industry Today via Zoom from the Greek capital, the transplanted Michigan native says that while some other big tourism cities do well to diversify their tourism offerings, the concept is relatively new to Athens.

He adds that the goal is also to educate visitors (in English, French and German versions of the guide) and demonstrate that “Athens is a city you can arrive to without really having a set itinerary. You can just go and walk and uncover something and feel like the first person to discover it.” And also that it is a city that “has enough to offer visitors to be here for more (time) than they think they should be.”

Asked to come up with three things he would recommend to visitors that they may not know about, Boersen cites the city’s ubiquitous and delicious koutoukia (underground tavernas); an impressive but under-the-radar wine scene (plus much improved retsina); and the city’s seaside “Riviera,” where visitors and locals and can swim, snorkel and windsurf, besides lying on the beach – all less than 30 minutes from the city centre.

Boersen explains that This Is Athens is a part of a plan for the city to take greater ownership of its own international promotion beyond the diverse efforts of national tourism board. And this includes the Canadian market, which has lacked a Greek presence for many years, since the GNTO shuttered its one-time Toronto office leaving promotional activities to local tour operators and Olympic Airways.

It’s a hole that Boersen says the city is eager to fill. “We think it’s a good fit,” he says. “Canadians are good travellers, they’re curious, they’re respectful, they’re good residents of cities – and that’s kind of what Athens wants, to appeal to people who live in cities the way Canadians do.”

Trade News

As for the trade, Ashton Andino of This is Athens’ new Canadian representatives, Reach Global Marketing, says initiatives will include:

• Creation of themed three- to seven-night itineraries to be shared with the travel trade that promote “Beyond the Acropolis,” new hip neighborhoods, the Athens Riviera, and using Athens as a hub and spoke base for touring the surrounding region.

• Webinars in both English and French to showcase the new itineraries starting in mid-March, with dates and registration details to be announced in the next two weeks.

• Growing and diversifying Athenian product in the Canadian market including organizing a virtual “Travel Trade Athens” event for leisure product buyers and MICE planners that includes one-on-one sessions with and Athenian DMCs, hoteliers, attraction and transportation companies.

Boerson acknowledges that with both Greece and Canada currently in pandemic lock-down, the campaign’s focus is not for the short term. But he also believes “we’re beyond aspirational (marketing).”

“I think,” he says, “that we’re sitting at the edge of our seats and waiting for the green light (to travel again). So, it’s an important moment for us to be talking to people.

“We’re seeing the light at the end of the tunnel – even if it’s not bright yet. That’s our mentality, that the light at the end of the tunnel is there, so we have to be prepared.”

Check out This is Athens at www.thisisathens.org