General News
Meropi Kyriacou Honored as TNH Educator of the Year
NEW YORK – Meropi Kyriacou, the new Principal of The Cathedral School in Manhattan, was honored as The National Herald’s Educator of the Year.
ATHENS – What’s due to be a record-breaking tourist year in Greece in 2022 despite the waning COVID-19 pandemic will be extended into the winter and become a year-round attraction, with Austrians, Germans and Swedes especially keen oncoming.
Tourism Minister Vassilis Kikilias said Greece is reaping the benefits of reaching out with year-round attractions and luring pensioners from northern Europe wanting to escape a harsh winter and likely energy shortages.
He said Austrians are becoming even more interested in Greece beyond the summer and that it could see an increase in their arrivals because of increased air connections between the countries, said SchengenVisaInfo.com.
On a visit to Austria, Kikilias met that country’s Tourism Minister Susanne Kraus Winkler, with Austria and Vienna especially a lure for Greeks who want to experience cold weather winter attractions there.
Minister Kikilias, on an official visit to Austria, with his counterpart, Susanne Kikilias said that arrivals from organized travel packages have increased this year by 15 percent compared to the record-breaking year of 2019, which could be surpassed this year.
“It is indicative that Austrian arrivals to Crete are over 50 per cent and to Rhodes over 20 percent compared to 2019 … there is also high interest from the Austrian side to meet new Greek destinations,” he said.
He said that the success of this year so far in Greece that drew worldwide attention and endless cavalcades of arrivals has created a “strong magnet” for Austrians and other markets.
He and Winkler signed an agreement to strengthen the cooperation of the two countries in the field of tourism, including themes such as sports, agriculture and welfare and Greece trying to get more Austrians to keep coming.
German leading travel market players also see Greece continuing to be a draw even during the autumn and into the winter with offerings other than beaches, sun, sand and islands.
Kikilias, held a series of meetings with the heads of airlines as well as tour operators in Germany in a bid to keep the flow coming through the winter, the site also said in its report.
He met the heads of Lufthansa Group, Eurowings, Condor as well as Der Touristic, noting that Greece had outdone other countries in getting tourists after essentially lifting pandemic health measures.
He said that Greece was the only EU country to secure travel packages until the end of the year and get the interest of airlines to expand flights in the winter across the country, not just the major cities.
He noted that during this summer, Lufthansa Group’s airlines offered over 14,000 flights to Greece and Greek Travel Pages (GTP) reported that in a meeting with Lufthansa and Eurowings executives and government officials he emphasized what Greece has to offer the German visitors.
GTO also reported that Swedes are going to come during the winter which offers them a respite from the long, dark, cold days there and that the Greek tourism ministry has another slogan for them: More Than The Eye Can See.
NEW YORK – Meropi Kyriacou, the new Principal of The Cathedral School in Manhattan, was honored as The National Herald’s Educator of the Year.
CLOSTER, NJ – The well-attended Greek Independence Day Celebration in Closter, NJ, took place on March 25, beginning with the Flag Raising Ceremony at Ruckman Park in Closter.
ALBANY – New York State Assemblyman Michael Tannousis (R, C-Staten Island/Brooklyn) on March 26 was joined in Albany by His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America to recognize Greek Independence Day and the 50th anniversary of the illegal Turkish invasion and continued occupation of Cyprus.
ATHENS - Historic member of PASOK and passionate advocate of the recognition of Pontian Greek genocide Michalis Charalambidis died on Wednesday aged 73.
ATHENS - While the New Democracy government denied audio files from the 2023 head-on train crash in Tempe which killed 57 had been tampered with, five managers at the state-run OSE railways agency reportedly had access to them.
FAIRVIEW, NJ – The Greek Cypriots of New Jersey under the auspices of the Federation of Cypriot American Organizations, the Consulate General of the Republic of Cyprus in New York and Consul General of Cyprus Michalis Firillas will commemorate the 69th Anniversary of the EOKA Liberation Struggle of Cyprus from British Colonial Rule 1955-1959, with a memorial service at the Greek Orthodox Church of the Ascension, 101 Anderson Avenue in Fairview, NJ, on Sunday, March 31.