Eureka! Institutional Repository

SUMMARY Conference (or Congress) Tourism, is one of the most powerful and significant markets, with highly notably economic and social advantages, as we will see later on. Business travelers, who transfer to other destinations in order to participate in conferences, exhibitions and other business liabilities, are welcomed guests to the destinations in which they travel to, as it is about people with high level of social, economical and educational aspects. Based on this approach, Thessaloniki, the city in which we are going to focus on, constitutes an undeniably attractive destination, owes to develop all the appropriate infrastructures and take all the appropriate actions, so as to attract that efficient alternative form of tourism. The purpose of this undergraduate assignment, is to analyze and present the pros and cons of a conference organization, the development weaknesses, the proposal solutions, the feasibility of development of conference tourism and the prospects of further development in the city of Thessaloniki. In the first chapter, the history and the evolution of tourism, travel and tourism enterprises is briefly – and at the same time understandably – mentioned, from the ancient times till nowadays. Next, in the second chapter, a reference in different types of tourism is being made, so as all those reasons that influenced the development of the alternative types of tourism. In the third chapter, we will focus on the conference tourism. Terminology will be introduced so as for us to be more comfortable in reading, we will discriminate the types of conference tourism, the elements of composition, the main types of conference activity, so as the major social and economical advantages that results from that type of alternative tourism. In the fourth chapter, we will focus more on the conference halls, that are available in Greece, and look deeper on those that exist in the city of Thessaloniki, by giving case studies of the most important ones. In the fifth chapter, we will briefly focus on the city of Thessaloniki, by giving all the important elements, so as to form a first image of the town. We will mention the pros and cons of Thessaloniki, as a conference destination, the conditions and the development weaknesses and we will provide solutions for better management of the conference product. Last but not least, in the sixth chapter, we will present all the prospects of development – if any – in the city of Thessaloniki. Finally, we will come to a conclusion of the overall project. Large number of pictures, charts, tables and statistical data, will be provided through out the project by valid Greek and foreign sources.