mental protection issues, and visitor preference
for special forms of tourism (relaxing close to
nature, coming to contact with the local popula-
tion and acquainted with their traditions, need for
more active involvement etc.)
In this context, the efforts for further developing
tourism in Greece are mainly focused on upgrading
and differentiating/enriching the tourist product.
Offering a greater variety of quality services that
satisfy the new requirements of global, as well as
domestic, demand, Greece seeks to:
•
attract and please high-end visitors that are
looking for quality, and are consuming more at the
place where they spend their vacations;
•
extend the tourist season beyond the summer
months, since most special forms of tourism are
not season-specific;
•
contain short-term fluctuations in tourist traffic,
which are rather manifest in low-end mass
tourism whenever incomes fall or services
become more expensive.
Special forms of tourism are those that are
not addressed to the mass market, albeit to
specific types of tourist.
All such forms of
tourism have a special feature, which is the very
reason tourists prefer them, their unique charac-
teristic, the source of the satisfaction they offer.
We are hereby presenting four such forms of
tourism, which show promising growth prospects:
a. Conference tourism
A special form of tourism, which has a lot of
potential for growth in Greece, occurs on the
occasion of, and during, a conference, i.e. a
meeting of a group of people from various places
and for a specific time period, with the purpose of
exchanging views on scientific and professional
issues.
In this case, the location of the conference has
not been selected as a tourist destination by visi-
tors, but has been selected by the organizer, who
takes into consideration various crucial condi-
tions, which Greece either already possesses or
makes systematic effort to realize.
The advantages include the favourable climate,
the increased potential for planning a rather attrac-
tive product mix for participants and their families
(in Greece, conference tourism can be blended
with recreational and cultural activities, visits to
monuments and museums, getting acquainted
with an authentic popular culture, coming close to
nature, gastronomic delights, marine experiences
etc.), the existence of infrastructures suitable for
small and medium-scale conventions, the ade-
quate airline connection of many Greek tourist des-
tinations with major European cities, the large
number of luxury hotels offering conference facili-
ties, the existence of experienced audio-visual
equipment enterprises and the large number of
firms involved in the organization and support of
congresses and conferences.
The disadvantages include the lack of a large and
modern metropolitan conference centre, capable
of hosting more than 6,000 persons, which will,
nonetheless, soon be dealt with through the con-
struction of the necessary works at the Phaleron
Delta, as well as the fact that Greece gradually
ceases to be viewed as a cheap destination, since
the quality of the services rendered to convention-
eers and their escorts is not always on a par with
the prices asked.
Conference tourism is a dynamically growing sec-
tor of the tourist economy, capable of withstand-
ing crises and reducing seasonality. Moreover, it
should be noted that the average conventioneer
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