For many travellers heading to Greece, staying in the country’s capital is more of a stopover en route to the country’s romantic islands but This is Athen's Tyler Boersen wants to change that.

“It’s a fairly typical story for us,” Tyler Boersen, International Press Officer, This Is Athens, tells TravelPulse Canada over a zoom call earlier this week.

“Visitors spend time here at the beginning and ends of their trip, but we want people to approach Athens the way they do other big cities like Rome, Paris, Barcelona or Berlin, where you can go and really explore our big diverse city. We have a lot going on and encourage visitors to just go with the vibe.”

2019 was a record-breaking year for This is Athens, with 158,000 Canadians visiting the ancient city and 300,000 visitors to the country itself. That gap in the number of Canadians visiting Greece but not Athens, is something Athens Tourism hopes to help close with its in-market strategy.

“Our National Tourism Office will do most of the promotion for Greece, but in the last three years, the City of Athens has taken on more of its own promotion. This is the first time we have reached out to an agency in a specific country and is part of our overall strategy to connect with Canadian travellers.”

Athens is more than just historic sites such as the Acropolis and Olympic Stadium, though those are of course big draws. But after taking in history, travellers are encouraged to check out the city’s museums, neighbourhoods and vast assortment dining options – which include Koutoukia, the famous underground taverns with exceptional local cuisine and wine. The city also balances urban life with gorgeous beaches along the Athens Riviera, just outside the city.

Pre-pandemic, there were daily one-stop connection options from Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver and Calgary via AirCanada/Star Alliance combinations (Lufthansa, Brussels Airlines, Aegean, Swiss and Austrian), British Airways via London-Heathrow and a SkyTeam combination of AirFrance/KLM via Paris or Amsterdam. Air Canada also offers seasonal non-stop service to Athens from Montreal and Toronto.

This is Athens hasn’t had a strong history of setting up specific partnership deals, educating mostly through FAM trips. They’ve created a new tool to provide the most up to date information that also includes COVID-19 protocols and English-language assistance for agents. “This is Athens” official tourism site www.thisisathens.org.

“We’re just breaking into a new cycle of campaigning, because of things on hold of course due to the pandemic. It’s something we’ll be working on this year. We want to make sure agents have the best information possible.”