A successful year for This Is My Athens initiative!

This Is My Athens, an initiative to help tourists get better acquainted with the Greek capital through tours conducted by volunteers, celebrated its first birthday on Wednesday, July 18, at the Technopolis cultural complex in Gazi, and made public the findings of a survey conducted over the course of its first year of operation.

This Is My Athens (www.thisisathens.org) was launched last summer by the municipal-run Athens Tourism & Economic Development Company with the assistance of the www.breathtakingathens.com web portal. It currently counts 400 volunteers, who have conducted over 100 tours of places in the city that cannot be found in most travel guides, offering insider knowledge of life in Athens, as well as good company and entertainment.

The tours are free of charge and do not include archaeological or historical information, which, by law, can only be provided by professional tour guides.

At the Technopolis event, organizers of This Is My Athens also presented the findings of a survey conducted by volunteers to gauge tourist satisfaction with Athens as a destination and with the services provided by the organization: 70 percent of respondents said they were visiting Athens for the first time; 74 percent were visiting for leisure and 28 percent for business; 50 percent stayed in Athens for 4-6 days and 33 percent stayed for 2-3 days; 48 percent stayed in 3- and 4-star hotels and 100 percent visited the historic center (Acropolis, Plaka, Kerameikos, Monastiraki and Thiseio).

The majority of participants said they were satisfied in the following areas: first, the availability of information available about the destination prior to their trip, second, the quality of services provided during their visit, and then by the choices available to them for online reservations. Some complained that they found the selection of tours and activities advertised or suggested for Athens to be limited.

Asked about the advantages of Athens over other tourist destinations, historical and archaeological sites scored the highest, followed by the local community and the urban landscape of Athens. Low scores were given to the availability of cultural activities for non-Greek speakers.

In eight separate categories regarding the overall image of the city -- security, value for money, behavior/friendliness of local population, choice of activities, quality of services at sites, hotels and transport, as well as the attractiveness of traditional/historic parts of the city -- Athens was also given high marks by respondents, who said that their view of the city in regard to these categories changed radically after their visit.


Source: KATHIMERINI