In the margins of Exhibition `Philoxenia 2005` held on 3-6 November in Greece, the Hellenic Association of Professional Congress Organizers (HAPCO) along with Helexpo, the organizer of `Philoxenia 2005`, organized a meeting to discuss Greece`s international position in meetings market.

“Officially the position of Greece in the international convention market is unknown but it is diffidently that there is no official and general convention record which registers the various conventions’ events in Greece. There are some but they don’t reflect the real situation”, said Mr Dimitris Mantzios, Director of Hellenic Association of Professional Congress Organizers (HAPCO) and General Manager of Amphitrion Congress Organising in Athens.

Competition is very high in the convention market and many competitive countries to Greece move in that direction in greater or lower extent, but Greece fails to keep up. Even statistics from ICCA (International Congress and Convention Association) and UIA (Union of International Associations) are not useful to see Greece’s general picture in international market.

According to UIA, Greece foe 2003 is in the 16th place with 162 conventions and holds 1.72% of the whole market. Athens is in 26th place with 59 conventions and holds 0.62%. Situation is more complicated for the statistics of 2004 but we have to mention that Spain is in the third place according to ICCA and in the fifth according to UIA. Both associations agree that Greece isn’t among the first ten.

Through statistics a general view of the market trends can be noted. Convention market changes rapidly and if someone has the ability to predict the trends, makes in time the product or the services so as to attract the customers. For Greece this is a difficult task to deal with because it hasn’t got the appropriate statistic data.

HAPCO proposal, which had presented to National Tourism Organization of Greece, is to promote the launching of conventions’ record. This record must be conducted by a public body such as National Tourism Organization of Greece or the Greek Ministry of Tourism with the contribution of private sector in order to be official and valid statistic data for conventions’ events in Greece.