Aiming at attracting a wider share of the Chinese tourist market to Attica, the regional governor, Nikos Hardalias, is visiting Shanghai, within the framework of the international exhibition ITB China 2024, where the Attica Region participates as a co-exhibitor at the national stand of the Greek National Tourist Organization.
Hardalias visited the offices of the Chinese airline Juneyao, which launched direct flights between Athens and Shanghai on April 2. During the discussion with the general manager of the company Wei Chen, he emphasized that the Region intends to further cooperate with the company in order to increase the number of Chinese visitors to Attica throughout the year. The regional governor underlined that the deepening of this corporate cooperation is part of Attica’s new strategic framework for extroversion, which he will present at the end of 2024.
After Dubai and the UAE market, China is a strategic tourist destination, as the cultural wealth of Attica, with its world heritage monuments and art exhibitions, gastronomy, cosmopolitan islands and beaches, are a pole of attraction for international visitors, but also for potential investors.
Hardalias also underlined that there will be close cooperation with the company’s representatives in Greece, in order to advertise as much as possible its initiative for a direct connection with Athens, while at the same time there will be joint actions for targeted promotion of Attica in Shanghai as tourist destination, with the aim of wider penetration into the Chinese market.
Juneyao Airways, which is one of China’s largest airlines, has been active since 2006 as a member of the Star Alliance. It covers 200 national and international destinations with a total of 95 aircraft, of which 85 are A320neo, as well as 10 brand new Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners, with which it operates, on a weekly basis, three direct flights to Athens from Shanghai and one from Beijing. In fact, Athens is one of the company’s five European destinations, along with Milan, Helsinki, Manchester and Bruges.
In the framework of his presence in China, the governor of Attica will, among other things, have an official meeting with the mayor of Shanghai, Gong Zheng, the administration of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), as well as with senior executives of COSCO in the city of Shanghai.
