Xenia Greece Exhibition successfully re-launched this year after a five year absence from the market. As a student studying at Alpine Centre together with my class mates we would visit the exhibition back in the early-2000s, gathering information for our hospitality projects or simply had to assist with the organization as it was part of our studies.
This year I had the honor to be an exhibitor at Greece’s most prestigious hotel trade show which took place at the Metropolitan Expo from the 25-27th of November 2017.
As Travel Bloggers Greece we had our own stand, reaching a new milestone for our team — an opportunity to present our work to the industry.
Xenia Greece: Exhibition Highlights
Over the course of three days, Xenia welcomed around 30,000 visitors from Greece and abroad. More than half of the visitors, approximately 17,000 are directly involved in the hospitality industry.
The venue offers a total of 45.000 sq.m. of exhibition space. Xenia Greece hosted approximately 500 exhibitors who presented their products and services in categories such as construction, decoration, energy and automation.
The scope of Xenia was also to add educational value to the event therefore a series of specialised events took place throughout the three days which added to the overall value and success of the exhibition. The events were grouped into subcategories such as Xenia Smart Hotel, Xenia Digi Hotel, Xenia Built Hotel, Xenia Gastronomy Summit and the Xenia International Hospitality Forum.
On one of the days I had the opportunity to sit in a panel at the Blogger Tweet Up event organized by Nelios, where together with Nicholas Mastoras, Costas Voyatzis (Yatzer) and Nikki Hayia we addressed the topic of how hotels should properly use Instagram and travel bloggers in their marketing efforts.
Travel Bloggers Greece at Xenia 2017: 365 days of Greek Travel Blogging
The theme of our stand was focused on promoting 365 days of Greek Travel Blogging, as this is something that we have been involved in for the past three years.
It was a significant opportunity for Travel Bloggers Greece to be present at the Xenia exhibition with our own stand as it gave the team an opportunity to present our work and continuous efforts to promote the Greek tourism industry internationally.
Over the past three years Travel Bloggers Greece have successfully worked with many destinations and hospitality businesses around Greece, covering different types of holidays from luxury and family to adventure and independent travel.
During the three days hospitality professionals, individual businesses and destinations had the opportunity to meet with members of Travel Bloggers Greece to learn more about travel blogging and to discuss future collaborations.
Digital marketing is the future of tourism marketing. Travel Bloggers Greece is the network of trusted professional bloggers and trusted influencers in the industry in Greece today. With over 623,000 combined page views per month and more than 222,000 Social Media followers, your brand and business can reach new customers when you work with us.
Our partners at Xenia Greece
Travel Bloggers Greece is one of my projects that I hold very close to heart. However, without the support we received for setting up this event and the teamwork involved, it would be impossible.
Teamwork is the secret ingredient that has been a driving force all these years and I personally believe that by working together for a common goal, we can achieve much more.
I would like to extend my greatest appreciation and thank you to every single one of our sponsors and everyone who contributed to the success of this milestone event for Travel Bloggers Greece. I would like to first of all thank Nikos Koumanis, Thanasis Panagoulias, Katerina Konstantopoulou and all the Xenia team for this opportunity.
Kostas and Callie of Anthomeli for the enormous support on setting up the stand. Celeste Tat (Family Experiences Blog) for organising and handling the sponsors, Marianne Najm (Family Goes Out) for the graphic work of invitations and social media promotion, and Chrysoula Manika (TravelPassionate), Tzina Varotsi (Eikones kai Psythiroi), Rebecca Hall (LifeBeyondBordersblog) for supporting the team effort at the exhibition. The rest of the members who could not be physically there but supported us in the promotion of the event.
Our list of partners:
Xenia Greece — for the partnership and for supporting our effort to promote travel blogging in Greece.
Herodion Hotel Athens — Our accommodation partner who also generously offered us an exclusive prize for our competition.
Nissos Beer and Maya Tsochlis for sponsoring us with the artisan beer produced on the island of Tinos. Our guests had the opportunity to taste the three unique beers during the three days of the event — NISSOS Pilsner the first Greek beer to be awarded a silver European Beer Star (2014), NISSOS Organic All-Day Lager and the Limited Edition 7 Beaufort, Strong Dark Pilsner.
Lemonodasos — a freshly produces lemonade from the island of Poros offered by Vlachos Patisserie.
Mourtzis Traditional Sweets — for the delicious artisan pistachios and sweets from the Saronic island of Aegina. Elina from We love Aegina for her support.
Call for Mom — for creating our beautiful 365 days of Greek Travel blogging banner which was made using photos of our members, and the Instagram photo booth frame.
Flower Wishes by Kalaitzi from Alimos for the plants which decorated our stand.
Dimiourgoume-Mazi for the Travel Bloggers Greece pins.
Golden Transfers for the transportation and decoration of our stand and transferring our members to and from Xenia.
A huge thank you to our Media partners — Nikos Krinis from Greek Travel Pages, Panayiota Sourtzi from Tourism Press and Katerina & Aris from Livin Lovin.
A special thank you to my friend Kostas Ioannidis (Anthomeli) for his dedication and support in setting up our stand.