From Crete to Corfu…Join the World’s Celebrities Spending Time in Greece!!

Greece was THE place to be this summer! From millionaires in Crete, Hollywood stars in Corfu, Santorini,and Zakynthos, a Global Greek wedding in Patmos and a Bollywood wedding extravaganza in Mykonos, Greece saw it all! 
The 2012 tourist season didn't start off like that though...

Germany’s media along with the rest of the mainstream European media fought hard at the start of the tourist season to see who could tell the worst horror stories about Greece, making tourists panic about the possibilities and the consequences of a GRexit! Although the reports sent bookings plummeting and cancellations soaring, ruining June and July to a certain extent, these doom and gloom predictions were literally ‘doomed’ to fail. 

Join Us in Greece 

One of the highly successful Billboard ads designed  pro bono by Charis Tsevis

launched in March 2012 in New York's Times Square

by the UP Greek Tourism team 

   

Official and unofficial campaigns by groups and individuals in Greece and abroad, aimed at bringing tourists back to Greece this year, were everywhere in the social media,  attempting to counter the negative images being beamed by the media around the world. 
The campaign above, launched by the UP Greek Tourism team and crowd funded by people like you and me, was particularly successful we are glad to say, and after its stint in New York, moved on to Washington!

One of the biggest selling points that we could all promote with surety, is that Greece has remained one of the safest destinations in the world.

The Greece based advertising campaigns  of major fashion brands with a Greek influence such as Hermes and Folli-Follie have been a welcome boost also!

 Hermes on Aegina 

Folli-Follie's Crazy for Greece Campaign

Greece may be going through an unprecedented economic crisis but thankfully this has not affected the beaches, the sea or the sun, and this attracts people from all over the world.

The list of international and Global Greek celebrities, who ignored the doomsday predictions and added Greece to their holiday destinations, along with hundreds of thousands of others, continues to grow each day! 

Nicholas Negroponte and Deborah Porter's

Greek wedding on Patmos

Photo Source: Patmos Times

Global Greek Nicholas Negreponte, (founder of the Media Lab at Boston’s prestigious MIT and the One Laptop Per Child Foundation) and Deborah Porter decided to have a Greek style wedding on a beautiful island in the Aegean, Patmos, the Island of the Apocalypse… the many international and local guests included Nicholas' brother, Ambassador John Negroponte.


Patmos is the same island that Julia Roberts decided would house her dreams for a Greek Island getaway home…

The list of celebrities visiting Greece this year is growing fast. 

 After playing Epidaurus in 2009,  Ethan Hawke  was at the Costa Navarino resort in the Peloponnese, Tim Burton and Helena Bonham Carter were in Corfu, as was supermodel Kate Moss who has returned with her family to spend a few days cruising the Ionian Sea, after choosing Greece for her honeymoon last year.

Lady Gaga hit the headlines from the island of Crete where she has apparently met her very own hot Greek and is making plans for a multi-million dollar home on one of Greece’s most beautiful islands.

Last summer’s successful concert at Athens’ Olympic Stadium, brought singer Jon Bon Jovi and family back to Greece on holiday. They have been spotted around Corfu and Kefalonia.

Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, regulars on Antiparos, where they have a house, are here for the summer and will probably be spotted at least once at the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus. 

Rumours a couple of years ago, even had US President Barack Obama planning a visit to the Hanks’ Antiparos retreat! 

Who else was or is here? Let’s start with our Global Greeks, well at least the ones we have heard of recently! Pappas Post publisher Gregory Pappas, a regular Mykonos visitor was in Athens earlier in the summer and came again in September, Greek Canadian Greek food experts Peter Minaki aka Kalofagas and Sam Sotiropoulos aka Greek Food are visiting right now, as is Greek American actress Anthoula Katsimatides who is in Nisyros and CBS Journalist Toula Vlahos who is in Paros. Greek-American presenter/showwoman Maria Menounos and her family also popped over to Greece, not for the Marathon this time, but for a wedding. 

Talking about weddings, Jennifer Aniston was supposed to be marrying the love of her life on Crete, but that's remained a rumour so far! 

Jennifer's ex, on the other hand, Brad Pitt, with Angelina Jolie,  also known as  Brangelina, and family, were in Pylos in July, took off to London for the Olympics and are reportedly back on their favourite Greek Island (and ours), Santorini. Angelina fell in love with the island while filming Lara Croft there a few years ago, and decided to buy a house on it. Stephen Baldwin fell in love with Greece while filming a documentary here and announced that the entire land of Greece should really be the Holy Lands...

 

The one and only Robert de Niro after whispering S’agapo (I love you) to Greek American Melina Kanakarides in a movie a few years ago, decided to see for himself and visit Greece this year, along with John Travolta as guests of the Latsis family.  

De Niro fell in love with Santorini too – can’t blame him - and is reportedly looking for a house there.

 

Interviewed against a magnificent blue Aegean backdrop by fellow celebrity and Global Greek from France, showman Nikos Aliagas,  De Niro and Travolta told us how safe it is and how much they loved Greece...

John Travolta, star of Grease and Saturday Night Fever, brought along wife Kelly Preston for a romantic interlude on Mykonos, the favourite Cycladic Island of many fashion ‘royals’ including Cavalli, Valentino, Jean Paul Gaultierand DSquared. The two D's that make up DSquared Dean and Dan even gave a lavish toga party on Mykonos this year. Apart from fashion royals and Hollywood royals who are regulars (Demi Moore decided to take time out to visit this year) Mykonos never has a shortage of bona-fide visiting royalty. Princess Caroline of Monaco’s children, the Casiraghis visited the island recently with their friends, Stavros and Eugenie Niarchos.

Regular royalty visiting, of course, includes ex-King Constantine of Greece and his family, who are reportedly building a new home on Spetses and England’s Prince Charles. This year, Jordan’s Queen Rania is also in town for a visit.   Abu Dhabi’s Prime Minister Sheikh also popped into Fiscardo for a quick first visit to Kefalonia.  

Billionaire business moguls Latsis and Angelopoulos often mix business with pleasure, hosting foreign dignitaries and business contacts on their mega-yachts as they cruise the deep blue sparkling waters of the Aegean and the Ionian, but the guests generally remain incognito out of respect for their privacy. Former US President George Bush senior and his entourage were amongst those who didn’t stay anonymous. 

Apart from our semi-permanent Troika visitors and the usual EU politicians and FINMINS, in July, welcomed ex-President Bill Clinton who headed the Hellenic Initiative delegation of mainly Global Greek businessmen like Dow Chemicals CEO and President, Andew N Liveris and financier John Calamos who are interested in helping get the country on its feet as well as in investing in Greece, and expressed his utmost confidence in the country, as did President Shimon Peres of israel who is here on a 3 day State visit, as we write. He assured us we have a great future ahead of us! 

Not bad at all for a little country in crisis!

Soooooo....

What are YOU waiting for? 

Join all those who love Greece and show it! 

It is still the beginning of August - there's plenty of time!

It isn’t too late to book YOUR holiday to paradise to enjoy the endless sun and deep blue sea! Get on the phone, on the internet, whatever, and book your holiday, right now!

Greece’s timeless beauty awaits you… with open arms! 

Join US!!!

 

Update:

We even had a 'Bollywood' wedding on Mykonos... something entirely different for the island. We loved it when we heard that Dubai-based Indian businessman Sagar Shewakraman and journalist Faarah Mehta decided to hold their wedding in Mykonos, in September and flew in all their guests for the occasion. Blue and white turbaned gentlemen and sari-clad ladies danced the night away, enjoying the unique hospitality Mykonos is famous for... Rumour has it that it cost around 2 million... part of that going into the Greek economy...sooner or later!  

Sagar and Faarah! Na Zisete! May you have a long and happy life together!

This post was updated... in 'summery' October, with the temperatures still hovering at 35C! Come on over, you can still catch up with the sun and have a great holiday!