Stay in Athens- a collection of premium experiences to support the visitor economy
October 9, 2020
Posted By: Polihron Karapachov
For over five years, we’ve helped to showcase Athens’ rich foodie scene of Athens, through events such as Taste of Athens and Dine Athens. This year we’ve gone further and helped to uncover the excellence of the hospitality industry in our city at a time when it needs it most.
In a year which has proven to be extremely challenging for the tourism industry, and especially for the hospitality sector, Stay in Athens by Mastercard, presented by This is Athens, aims to give much needed support to the city’s visitor economy. It’s a first-of-its-kind initiative in Athens that aims to highlight how the city excels at hospitality to our visitors, fellow Athenians and domestic visitors from the rest of the country. Given the challenges surrounding Covid-19, this initiative required a very holistic and innovative approach from our team in every aspect, from media to marketing, planning and execution.
In a year which has proven to be extremely challenging for the tourism industry, and especially for the hospitality sector, Stay in Athens by Mastercard, presented by This is Athens, aims to give much needed support to the city’s visitor economy. It’s a first-of-its-kind initiative in Athens that aims to highlight how the city excels at hospitality to our visitors, fellow Athenians and domestic visitors from the rest of the country. Given the challenges surrounding Covid-19, this initiative required a very holistic and innovative approach from our team in every aspect, from media to marketing, planning and execution.
Background
During the last few years, Athens has shown very impressive growth in tourism arrivals. In fact, between 2012 and 2018, the number of visitors to the city has doubled. The growing popularity of Athens, together with the thriving hospitality industry made us realise that there’s a major opportunity to create a tempting fusion between hotel stays and experiences. The aim was to bring to the forefront products that would not only enchant visitors but also “break the ice” between locals and hotels. Essentially, the aim is to reposition hotels as a vital ingredient to the weekend experience, both for permanent and temporary residents.
A major response campaign aiming to boost local businesses.
With local businesses having suffered the damaging effect of COVID-19 on the visitor economy, Stay in Athens is also heavily focused on supporting local businesses. As the Hellenic Statistical Authority has indicated, during the second quarter of the year, hotels in Greece have seen a decline of 94.3% in revenues compared to 2019. Against this backdrop, Stay in Athens can be seen as a response campaign to the hardships that hoteliers are facing and as an initiative that we hope will boost consumer confidence for people to discover the city safely.
Concept & Approach
In order to highlight the excellence of Athenian hospitality, we focused on bringing together some of the top 4 and 5 star hotels in the city, a collection of premium properties that provides a wide variety of choice for visitors and locals. By bringing in exclusive tours, spa treatments and tasting experiences, we aimed to create an initiative that went beyond a mere stay in a hotel, and instead curate experiences which would delight guests’ senses, treat them to famous Athenian hospitality, and ensure that the money they spend would support a sector seriously affected by the reduction in global travel.
Design
Since we made an exclusive selection of some of the top 4 and 5 start hotels in Athens, we wanted to take a similar approach when designing the webpage and the branding. Taking into account the premium character of the selected properties, we decided to go with a very minimalist design for the Stay in Athens platform; dark colours, rounded elements and modest information. It’s a design that resonates with the concept of the initiative and which would also highlight the excellence of the selected hotels.
Experiences
With our background in event planning during Taste of Athens and Dine Athens, we made sure to integrate a wide variety of experiences. From premium fine dining and spa treatments to unique tasting experiences, from walking tours around Athens’ rich historical heritage to exclusive museum visits, we made sure that Athenians and guests of the city would have the chance to explore the unique character of the Greek capital.
Greek hospitality has always been one of the defining elements for Greece and Athens. In these unprecedented times, we believe that it is fundamental to support hotels as they are vital to the recovery of the tourism sector. We also believe that they have the potential to become an essential part of the daily life of Athenians. A place where locals would go for a relaxing spa experience, have a quality dinner or just enjoy a drink on a hotel’s terrace. Because by enjoying the city’s hotel facilities, we believe that Athenians can get more out of life in the city, and of course, because Athens can be a perfect city-break destination both for visitors and locals.
Booking the exclusive packages through Stay in Athens is open to all (international, domestic visitors and locals), and there is still time to enjoy the wide range of offers available. Just visit www.stay-in-athens.gr and take advantage of our exclusive rates!
TOPOSOPHY: Place making & marketing agency
Athens has always inspired us and already for many years we have been working enthusiastically with the tourism sector to transform our city into a creative and aspiring destination. Throughout the last ten years we’ve worked extensively with This is Athens & Partners on market intelligence studies, place branding strategies and destination marketing campaigns. We introduced DineAthens by Alpha Bank and brought the popular worldwide concept of Restaurant Week to the city. We also curate, one of the largest and most important international platforms for culinary festivals in the city - Taste. Now, together with our partners from Mastercard and This is Athens, we are once again revealing the best this city has to offer.
What TOPOSOPHY can do for you
We have been global thought leaders in destination development, management and marketing for the last 10 years. We transform places and destinations through the skills and international experience of 12 members of staff and a global network of 20+ experts. In total, we have undertaken projects and offered integrated solutions to trusted clients in 20+ countries across 4 continents. We’re ready to support you too.
Some of our services include:
Contact us
If you’d like to know more about what we’ve presented here, you’re always welcome to get in contact with us. Just drop us a line at info@toposophy.com or send us a note through our contact page.
A major response campaign aiming to boost local businesses.
With local businesses having suffered the damaging effect of COVID-19 on the visitor economy, Stay in Athens is also heavily focused on supporting local businesses. As the Hellenic Statistical Authority has indicated, during the second quarter of the year, hotels in Greece have seen a decline of 94.3% in revenues compared to 2019. Against this backdrop, Stay in Athens can be seen as a response campaign to the hardships that hoteliers are facing and as an initiative that we hope will boost consumer confidence for people to discover the city safely.
Concept & Approach
In order to highlight the excellence of Athenian hospitality, we focused on bringing together some of the top 4 and 5 star hotels in the city, a collection of premium properties that provides a wide variety of choice for visitors and locals. By bringing in exclusive tours, spa treatments and tasting experiences, we aimed to create an initiative that went beyond a mere stay in a hotel, and instead curate experiences which would delight guests’ senses, treat them to famous Athenian hospitality, and ensure that the money they spend would support a sector seriously affected by the reduction in global travel.
Design
Since we made an exclusive selection of some of the top 4 and 5 start hotels in Athens, we wanted to take a similar approach when designing the webpage and the branding. Taking into account the premium character of the selected properties, we decided to go with a very minimalist design for the Stay in Athens platform; dark colours, rounded elements and modest information. It’s a design that resonates with the concept of the initiative and which would also highlight the excellence of the selected hotels.
Experiences
With our background in event planning during Taste of Athens and Dine Athens, we made sure to integrate a wide variety of experiences. From premium fine dining and spa treatments to unique tasting experiences, from walking tours around Athens’ rich historical heritage to exclusive museum visits, we made sure that Athenians and guests of the city would have the chance to explore the unique character of the Greek capital.
Greek hospitality has always been one of the defining elements for Greece and Athens. In these unprecedented times, we believe that it is fundamental to support hotels as they are vital to the recovery of the tourism sector. We also believe that they have the potential to become an essential part of the daily life of Athenians. A place where locals would go for a relaxing spa experience, have a quality dinner or just enjoy a drink on a hotel’s terrace. Because by enjoying the city’s hotel facilities, we believe that Athenians can get more out of life in the city, and of course, because Athens can be a perfect city-break destination both for visitors and locals.
Booking the exclusive packages through Stay in Athens is open to all (international, domestic visitors and locals), and there is still time to enjoy the wide range of offers available. Just visit www.stay-in-athens.gr and take advantage of our exclusive rates!
TOPOSOPHY: Place making & marketing agency
Athens has always inspired us and already for many years we have been working enthusiastically with the tourism sector to transform our city into a creative and aspiring destination. Throughout the last ten years we’ve worked extensively with This is Athens & Partners on market intelligence studies, place branding strategies and destination marketing campaigns. We introduced DineAthens by Alpha Bank and brought the popular worldwide concept of Restaurant Week to the city. We also curate, one of the largest and most important international platforms for culinary festivals in the city - Taste. Now, together with our partners from Mastercard and This is Athens, we are once again revealing the best this city has to offer.
What TOPOSOPHY can do for you
We have been global thought leaders in destination development, management and marketing for the last 10 years. We transform places and destinations through the skills and international experience of 12 members of staff and a global network of 20+ experts. In total, we have undertaken projects and offered integrated solutions to trusted clients in 20+ countries across 4 continents. We’re ready to support you too.
Some of our services include:
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Contact us
If you’d like to know more about what we’ve presented here, you’re always welcome to get in contact with us. Just drop us a line at info@toposophy.com or send us a note through our contact page.
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