Have you ever had a full day but throughout the day you would say, “no mater what, I am looking forward to the party I am invited to at the end of this horrible day!”
Well that was how I felt all day about the party Amadeus Greece was holding for the travel and tourism industry.
For God knows how many years in a row, Amadeus Greece would through a party at the beginning of the summer season for the travel and tourism industry in Athens Greece. The “Who is Who” of the industry was invited, and they would attend. The place would be packed and everyone would do what the travel and tourism does best – socialize, have a good time among friends and maybe do some business!
The invitation, the venue and the timing was predisposing that it would be a wonderful repetition.
Although I made it to the party about an hour late, people were still coming, which was nothing to question because the party usually runs late, but what hit me was that I was greeted by an extremely long line of people. By the time I got through, I figured out that they were all local Amadeus people, who were told to sit at the front door and greet the people they knew. This was something new, but could not imagine that they have such a large headcount for a country like Greece, but heck who am I to judge how many people they have. If the bottom line justifies it, let it be!
Proceeding to the party area, several things popped to mind – “Did I come too early? Is the venue too large? Where are the people that use to come to the Amadeus Greece party?
I was almost ready to turn back and return at a later time, but the hassle of getting the car back from the parking assistants and coming back, made it a no-brainer.
Trying to rationalize, I concluded that I was already one hour late so that was out of the question. As for the venue, the Amadeus Greece party venue was either at the same place or at a similar size places every year. The weather was perfect for a cools summer night outing, without any soccer or basketball match taking place at the same time. So what is going on? Again I concluded, heck who am I to judge, maybe they didn’t invite that many people this year.
Mingling through the people who were there I could not find the “Who is Who” of Greek tourism who once attended this party traditionally. To be fair I exerted effort to find a hand full or two – and do I know the people of this industry. Have times changed?
In my quest to find these opinion leaders/decision makers or the so called “Who is Who”of the Greek travel and tourism industry I fell upon the “top dog” of Amadeus Greece, only to receive the final blow, who said that they had to scrape up everything from the marketing budget to make it happen, leaving nothing for any promotion till the end of the fiscal year. I almost got carried away to calculate the ROI of this activity, but heck…I went to the bar and got a fresh drink.
Leaving the party and till this time, I am still confused. Has Amadeus Greece bin hit by the Greek crisis or not?
By Spiros A. Gianiotis
