Marketing Greece, outlined innovative strategies to enhance the image and reputation of Greece through the repositioning and promotion of the country.
Nikos Diamantopoulos, General Manager at Marketing Greece, outlined innovative strategies to enhance the image and reputation of Greece through the repositioning and promotion of the country's niche tourism offering.
Nikos Diamantopoulos, General Manager at Marketing Greece, outlined innovative strategies to enhance the image and reputation of Greece through the repositioning and promotion of the country's niche tourism offering.
Nikos Diamantopoulos, General Manager at Marketing Greece, outlined innovative strategies to enhance the image and reputation of Greece through the repositioning and promotion of the country's niche tourism offering.
Marketing Greece supports the entire Greek tourism industry. Extending beyond national promotion, it crafts unique narratives for each destination in the country, meticulously highlighting their distinct characteristics. Data and research are an integral component of the DMO's actions, helping the organisation to constantly follow emerging trends and drive sustainable development. This ensures its marketing initiatives remain forward-looking, create engagement and effectively position Greece within the competitive global tourism landscape.
Fostering a collaborative spirit, Marketing Greece builds relationships to spread positive publicity about Greece's modern tourism offer. With its DiscoverGreece.com travel portal, the organisation serves as the central hub for information about all regions of Greece. A dynamic social media ecosystem further ensures a consistent message reaches a global audience, driving interest to every corner of Greece.
Recognising the ever-evolving travel landscape, Marketing Greece embraces a growth mindset, continuously refining its strategies to meet the ongoing challenge of adaptation. While change can be challenging, the DMO focuses on three key areas:
A key pillar of Marketing Greece's approach to innovation is the prioritisation of digital development activities. While the DMO recognises the disruptive potential of AI, a key challenge lies in the cost-benefit analysis of AI integration and carefully evaluating how to maximise return on investment.
Through a drive for experimentation, Marketing Greece has partnered with the Matador Network to launch the GuideGeek AI chatbot, a sophisticated travel assistant that combines ChatGPT with real-time travel information and insights curated by travel experts. Acquiring an independent license for ChatGPT was a strategic decision that determines the level of control and customisation Marketing Greece possesses over its AI-powered chatbot.
However, GuideGeek doesn't rely on static data and connects to affiliate APIs, while the chatbot is trained on DiscoverGreece.com content to ensure brand voice is effectively replicated. As a result of the chatbot's compatibility with all major social media networks, this approach enables visitors to get personalised and up-to-date recommendations in an intuitive conversational manner, without the need to navigate through apps or websites. Meanwhile, marketers can take control of conversions when they identify potential for value creation.
Alongside the benefits for visitors, an AI chatbot also has the following benefits for DMOs:
Marketing Greece's goal is to bridge the gap between the culture and tourism industries, but the biggest challenge it faces is how to turn cultural resources into immersive travel experiences. A key element of this strategy is its investment in audio tours. These leverage the power of storytelling, often incorporating innovative technologies, like Augmented Reality (AR) and gamification, to reveal the hidden stories that bring each destination to life. This focus on intangible heritage, encompassing architecture, gastronomy and local customs aims to:
Alongside the focus on digital product development, Marketing Greece also faces the challenge of supporting the digitalisation of niche experience operators. It optimises their positioning on DiscoverGreece.com, with a focus on enhancing the visual identity of each operator through owned, high-quality content and SEO optimisation to facilitate bookings through the platform. This is complemented by an omnichannel approach through organic social media promotion and newsletter features.
As a non-profit initiative representing the Greek tourism private sector, Marketing Greece actively cultivates public-private partnerships, understanding that collaboration is key to amplifying the country's voice in the global tourism market. The challenge lies in ensuring all stakeholders share a common vision for Greek tourism and are aligned on brand identity and marketing activities.
The cornerstone of Marketing Greece's approach to creating alignment between stakeholders is through building regional partnerships. These collaborations, such as those in Athens, Central Macedonia, Chania (Crete), Kavala & Thassos, Kefalonia and Lesvos (North Aegean), leverage each region's unique strengths to create distinct identities that complement Greece's national image, showcasing the diversity of the country's tourism experiences.
The rise of digital nomads presents an opportunity to drive sustainable growth in the visitor economy, with Marketing Greece running campaigns to encourage remote workers to move to Greece. The Work From Greece initiative, a government-backed programme with support from Cosmote, Aegean Airlines and Eurobank, has established itself as a central hub for digital nomads seeking information about the Greek digital nomad community and the growing ecosystem of initiatives and businesses providing services to remote workers in Greece.
Acknowledging the unique needs of the remote workforce, the platform provides useful information and tips about living in Greece and inspires digital nomads to imagine their daily professional lives in Greece, with a strong focus on envisioning their ideal work-life balance. Complementing this focused content are practical resources to connect potential travellers with the existing communities of remote workers and testimonials from digital nomads already in Greece.
Nikos brings a wealth of experience to his role as General Manager of Marketing Greece. He has played a key role in the organisation's development and has a deep understanding of Greek tourism. He is an expert in digital marketing and campaign development who spearheaded Discovergreece.com in 2014 and took the helm in May 2023.
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