This is Athens Agora 2026: Athens Charts its Tourism Future with a Focus on Quality and Sustainability
Athens, April 21 – The Greek capital is currently hosting the 11th ‘This is Athens Agora’ event at the Hotel Grande Bretagne, from April 20-21. This established gathering serves as a pivotal meeting point for the domestic tourism industry and leading international professionals, aiming to bolster Athens’ global outreach and craft a new tourism narrative through collaboration, knowledge exchange, and targeted engagements with key markets.
The event has attracted dozens of professionals from Europe, America, India, and Canada, alongside representatives from Greek tourism businesses, transforming Athens into a hub for substantive dialogue on the future of tourism for two days.
A New Era of Tourism Maturity for Athens
This year’s ‘This is Athens Agora’ holds particular significance as cities worldwide are re-evaluating their positions on the international stage, investing in high-quality experiences, sustainable practices, and a strong identity. The event functions not merely as a trade fair but as a networking and promotional platform that connects tourism with culture, creativity, and urban development, showcasing Athens as a dynamic, consistent, and forward-looking destination.
Athens is entering a new phase of tourism maturity, tasked not only with managing its momentum as an international destination but also with clearly charting its course for the coming years. In this context, ‘This is Athens Agora’ acts as a critical hub for strategic discussion, networking, and collaboration, bringing together the municipality, institutional bodies, airlines, tourism businesses, and professionals who shape the city’s tourism product daily.
Athens’ Tourism Future: A Strategic Plan for Quality and Collaboration
The Mayor of Athens, Haris Doukas, set the primary objective from the outset: “The goal is not merely to increase arrivals, but to redefine Athens’ tourism with a decade-long horizon and long-term depth.” He noted that the capital is no longer just a supplementary stop for visitors but an autonomous, year-round, and resilient destination, continuously attracting investments and new interest. However, this growth comes with new challenges and pressures, necessitating a stricter and smarter management of the destination.
Mr. Doukas emphasized that Athens is approaching saturation points in certain areas, and the municipal authority must continuously monitor developments to prevent overcrowding and extreme pressure on the urban environment. He highlighted the need for quality tourism, better regulation of both the hotel market and short-term rentals, and the utilization of all available tools to ensure balanced development. Furthermore, he placed significant emphasis on infrastructure, stating that the city requires a comprehensive regeneration, with new interventions in roads, networks, its digital image, and green spaces, to meet the increasing demands of the future.
Airport and Destination: A Shared Trajectory
Ioanna Papadopoulou, Director of Communications and Marketing at Athens International Airport, underscored the crucial role of collaboration between the airport and the destination, emphasizing their mutual and inextricably linked relationship. She focused on the airport’s strategic pillars, with connectivity being paramount, noting that the development of new markets and routes is not just an aviation goal but a factor with broader economic and social impact. She referred to a recent study linking increased connectivity with a positive impact on GDP, employment, and social progress indicators, highlighting that the benefits of strengthening the network extend not only to visitors but also to residents themselves.
Ms. Papadopoulou also stressed the importance of sustainability, mentioning that the airport has completed a major energy transition project, through which it now covers all its energy needs from clean energy. Additionally, she referred to the airport’s investment plan of 1.3 billion euros, which includes significant expansions and upgrades that will enhance capacity and passenger experience by 2032. She stated: “Collaboration with the city and other stakeholders is a prerequisite for coordination and a common direction in how the destination will develop overall.”
Aegean: Investments, Network, and Outlook
Pepi Stamati, Chief People and Corporate Affairs at Aegean, echoed similar sentiments, describing ‘This is Athens Agora’ as an institutional event that the company has supported from the very beginning. She emphasized that it is a significant B2B tourism initiative, bringing together key players in the international tourism industry with the common goal of strengthening Athens’ position on the global map. Referring to the 2025 results, she noted that Aegean recorded strong passenger traffic to and from Athens, confirming the stable momentum of the airline network and its contribution to the overall tourism development of the country.
She also presented the company’s next steps for 2026, including increased capacity and new direct connections, among them high-interest destinations for the Athens market, such as India. She did not, however, fail to mention that the international situation remains unstable and that the tourism industry will once again need to demonstrate resilience. In this environment, she stressed, “the value of initiatives such as ‘This is Athens’ and the collaboration between institutional and private bodies becomes even greater.”
The Challenge of Sustainable Tourism Development
The importance of this very partnership was also highlighted by Alexandros Thanos, SETE’s entrusted advisor, who pointed out that the collaboration of stakeholders in a place is what can truly enhance a tourism product, especially during periods of uncertainty. He underlined that: “tourism success should not be taken for granted, as the international environment is constantly changing and competition between cities and destinations is intensifying.” For this reason, he said, continuous enhancement of competitiveness, utilization of private investments, and at the same time a substantial contribution from the public sector, which in many cases still lags in terms of infrastructure and responsiveness, are required.
Mr. Thanos also emphasized the importance of data, the DMMO, the observatory, and the documentation tools developed by the Municipality of Athens, noting that these are now essential tools for effective policy making. Furthermore, he stressed that social acceptance remains a basic prerequisite for sustainable tourism development and that the authenticity of the destination is its most important competitive advantage. In this context, sustainability is presented not as a communication slogan but as the foundation of long-term development that requires coordination between the state, local government, businesses, and society.
Athens with a Plan and Data
Elissaios Sarmas, CEO of Athens Development Agency SA, reflected the same philosophy, describing the company’s strategy around three main axes: digitization, sustainability, and collaboration. As he explained: “the use of artificial intelligence, big data, and digital monitoring tools now allows for more accurate and dynamic management of flows, while the developing sustainable tourism observatory will be a critical mechanism for future policy making.” At the same time, he highlighted the importance of carrying capacity studies and the need to alleviate the pressures experienced by specific neighborhoods and time zones of the city.
Mr. Sarmas emphasized that ‘This is Athens Agora’ is much more than a trade fair. It is, he said, a strategic tool for the city, helping to connect international demand with Greek supply and to generate meaningful collaborations and development opportunities.
This is Athens Agora 2026: A Vision for the Future
This year’s 11th event brings together representatives from Athens’ key target markets, with over 1,500 scheduled B2B meetings, strengthening the capital’s role as a meeting place, dialogue platform, and strategic planning hub for the future of tourism. This year’s ‘This is Athens Agora’ showcased something broader than a successful professional event. It highlighted the new model upon which Athens is building its tourism identity: a model that invests not only in promotion but also in management, collaboration, sustainability, and the quality of life in the city. And this, precisely, seems to be the real challenge for Athens now.
Source: ertnews.gr
