Networks of interconnection discussed at ABNA-SE Conference

The channels and bridges of communication with the Balkans and Southeastern Europe have brought excellent results for Greek tourism, Deputy Tourism Minister Sofia Zacharaki said in her address to the Association of Balkan News Agencies - Southeastern Europe (ABNA-SE) Conference held in Thessaloniki. The conference was organised by the Athens-Macedonian News Agency, which currently holds the ABNA-SE presidency.
Speaking on Monday afternoon in the section "Networks of interconnection, bridges of cooperation and development", in a panel discussion that included Thessaloniki Mayor Konstantinos Zervas, Zacharaki particularly stressed the role of the city in the wider region and emphasised the hospitality's sector's contribution to establishing sincere cooperation between states and in jointly overcoming the crisis.
She noted the initiatives to help establish Thessaloniki as a thematic tourism destination - for example as a city-break and home-porting destination - and underlined that strategic investment in thematic tourism offers opportunities for further growth. Among others, she pointed to Thessaloniki's inclusion in the Creative Cities Network for Gastronomy and as a destination for conferences and education.
"With tourism and tourism education as a vehicle, the city is emerging as a stable bridge for connecting the region of the Balkans and its transition to a new era of growth based on sustainability," Zacharaki said, expressing the expectations that Thessaloniki will take on a leading role in this new era.
Prompted by the presence in the panel of the Strategic Communications and Foreign Relations Manager of the Anadolu Agency, Hazal Duran, the deputy minister also expressed Greece's solidarity with the Turkish people following the devastating earthquakes in Turkiye.
Duran outlined the difficulties of covering events such as the recent catastrophic earthquakes, including ensuring the safety of employees and providing incessant coverage, as well as fact-checking news. She also sent an upbeat message that "in the aftermath of this tragic news, the most important thing is to build bridges and strengthen solidarity between countries. Rescue teams from everywhere in the world came to the region as fast as they could in order to help find as many people as possible still alive."
The meeting was also addressed by the executive officer and board member of ICGB, Teodora Georgieva, who highlighted the role of energy in the environment being shaped by geopolitical developments in SE Europe, noting that the IGB natural gas pipeline is a "game changer" for the region. She said that the benefits were not restricted to Greece and Bulgaria, as the IGB could help supply energy to Hungary, Romania, Moldova and Ukraine. For the present, she noted that it covered a third of domestic demand in Bulgaria and greatly reduced dependence on a single supply source, allowing both LNG and Azeri gas to reach Bulgaria.
Aegean Airlines executive Marina Spyridaki spoke about the company's fleet and its connections with the entire world, adding that Thessaloniki is at the heart of the airline's operation and had symbolic significance, as the city from which the company began its international flights in 2001. She noted that Aegean had the largest network of flights in the city during the winter season and this year approached the pre-crisis levels of 2019, helping people come to Thessaloniki to visit, work, study, invest and live. Aegean intends to continue investing in the network during the summer, she added, when it will connect Thessaloniki with twice the number of destinations as the year before, including 24 international and 17 domestic destinations.

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