Whats featured in this issue

Modern Lifestyle product s

Florian Fleischer, Product Manager Eastern

Mediterranean, TUI Germany

p3

TUI France excursion masters p5

TUI UK & the ice buckets

TUI UK Teams in Skiathos and Crete support-

ing the Family Holiday Association (FHA).

p6

The Invasion

Rhodes College Kindergarden meets TUI. p7

Food for Thought

TUI Hellas promoting service quality improve-

ments in Greek tourism.

p8

ALWAYS CHANGING!

Sean Parker, General Manager, Holiday Experi-

ence Greece, Lapland, 24/7 Service and Youth

in an interview with MyGreekTUIFriends.

p11

Witamy na TUI (*Welcome to TUI)

Paulina about her first season as a Rep for TUI.

p18

Red Devils - United Angels

Our colleague Ann Soetewey about Jetair,

football and friendship.

p19

Race for Cure, against breast cancer

Culture in Greece unearthed again

A new major archaeological finding and a new

emerging destination?

p28

Clean Beaches, happy people

p22

Erotokritos & Aretousa

Our colleague Rena Iliou from Crete writing

about the an alluring Cretan folk literature.

p21

Photo

: E

pir

us

The Ambassadors

TUI Service at the event of the German Em-

bassy.

p25

p33

Champagne, Love & Olgas smile p32

Florian Fleischer:

Lets create more products for modern

lifestyle customers!

Page 3

Sean Parker:

The one thing that never changes, is

that we are always changing!

Page 11

Get inside!

One TUI

pa2ge

2014 marks another milestone

year for the Greek Tourism and

for TUI Group. Although the final

statistics have not been yet pub-

lished, it seems that Greece will

exceed its targets for 20.5 million

visitors, placing the tourism sector

at the center of the countrys

economic recovery. A true success

story!

TUI, being the largest tourism

organization in the country,

played a significant role in this

success by keeping its commit-

ment to the Greek government

for 10% increase, bringing some 2

million customers who chose the

companys promise for unique

holidays in our beautiful country.

Our diverse team of almost 1000

TUI professionals at the destina-

tion have worked together to ful-

fill the brand promise and help

our customers to Discover Their

Smile in Greece!

A BIG THANK YOU to all my col-

leagues for their passion and ded-

ication!

What made this season so excep-

tional though was the ONE TUI

Spirit, reflecting the mainstream

efforts of leading the source mar-

kets and destinations working

together as ONE, like the ONE

Service pilot we held successfully

in Rhodes and all the informal

collaborative and constructive

discussions took place between

our teams. This issue has a lot of

interesting interviews and articles

displaying this spirit and conta-

gious attitude. Dont miss the

interview of Florian Fleischer, TUI

Germanys Product Manager East

Med, talking about the product

strategy and growth plans in

Greece as well as the fruitful co-

operation with the TUI Hellas

team in delivering the mainstream

strategy at the destination. Also

on this issue, Sean Parker, TUI

UK & Ireland General Manager

Holiday Experience Greece/

Lapland, is taking us through the

customer experience journey and

reminds us that the one thing

that never changes, is that we are

always changing.

As we approach the end of this

exciting ride, I cant keep myself

from thinking how important this

season was for me personally, as I

travelled around the country, vis-

ited destinations for the first time

and had the privilege to meet and

work closely with a lot of my col-

leagues, build great relationships

and gain a first-hand experience

of our operations and capabilities.

During July, I continued my trav-

els to the Ionian islands where we

shared the Momentum mission

and values with the local teams

and joined a prestigious event in

Zakynthos with quests from the

local authorities and hoteliers. My

next trip took me to the Pelopon-

nese region where we met with

the Region Governor Mr. Tatoulis,

exchang ing ideas on co-

promotions and developing new

sustainable products, followed by

very interesting visits in Crete,

Santorini and Rhodes. Later in

October, we welcomed David

Schelp, our CEO Destination Ser-

vices, to two of our biggest desti-

nations, Rhodes and Crete, show-

ing our operations and sharing

our growth strategy.

Last but certainly not least, the

announcement of TUI AG and TUI

Travel merger as well as the sub-

sequent visit of Peter Long, CEO

of TUI Travel to Greece meeting

with the Prime Minister for the

second time, made us all proud of

being members of this great com-

pany.

THANK you for this fantastic

journey. I look forward to contin-

uing working with all of you in

building the new TUI, the worlds

number one integrated leisure

tourism Group!

My Best Wishes for Happy Christ-

mas and a Wonderful new Year!

!

A warm Welcome by Michael Mavropoulos, CEO of TUI Hellas

pa3ge

Florian Fleischer has good reasons to be

optimistic. Being in charge of Product Man-

agement in Greece and the Eastern Medi-

terranean, he saw this year a dreamful

boom of German bookings in Greece. Not

only is TUI the leading tour operator in Ger-

many, but it is also the biggest tour opera-

tor of German visitors in Greece. Some

400.000 German TUI guests arrived this

year in Hellas, marking a great increase of

10%. Greece is totally back on the stage! I

am very pleased with the performance of

bookings in Greece this year. Demand in

Germany for holidays in Greece remains on

very high levels. As a result of the financial

crisis, Greeces image in Germany (and vice

versa) was affected, but has meanwhile

recovered entirely. German holidaymakers

want to go back to Greece, which is one of

their most popular holiday destinations. As

a matter of fact, Germany was and remains

the biggest and most important source mar-

ket for Greece, with estimated total arrivals

of 2,9 million visitors by the end of this

year. Since the mid 1990ies German arrivals

never dropped the mark of 2 million visitors,

a clear evidence for Germanys tremendous

importance (chart page 3). But Florian

Fleischer doesnt stick to the past, no mat-

ter how positive.

The right strategy

He emphasizes the importance of catching

this positive momentum and thus ensuring

further growth during the next couple of

years. We have the right strategy on how to

further increase visitor flows to Greece and

how to defend and strengthen our market

leader position here, he explains. We have

the suitable differentiated hotel concepts

and maintain excellent relationship with our

suppliers in Greece. Nonetheless, the

Greek contract partners still have room for

improvement. Looking at the other side of

the Aegean, 27 Hotelpartners of TUI Ger-

many in Turkey received the TUI Holly

2014 Award, while just 7 of their Greek

counterparts got the Holly. I am very confi-

dent that more and more of our Greek part-

ners will take the recommended measures in

order to reach the top! They can do it!, Flo-

rian Fleischer motivates.

New target groups

The key for this is adjusting the product to

different needs of certain customer groups.

Florian Fleischer focuses on the need for

more hotels of even higher quality stand-

ards and of hotels that cover specific cus-

tomer needs. The so called TUI Travel

Worlds (Reisewelten), have been designed

for this reason. TUI Scene, for instance,

addresses young and modern customers

who prefer hotels in holiday resorts with

shops, cafes and vibrant nightlife, or TUI

Nature, targeting customers who want to

enjoy stunning landscapes, intact environ-

ment and authentic contact with the locals.

We see among German customers a tre-

mendous demand in the segment of modern

lifestyle. And this is going to continue. So we

need to expand our product portfolio with

further Viverde, Sensatori and other concept

-hotels for modern lifestyle customer

groups. Our partners in Greece, as well as in

other destinations, should be motivated to

proceed with investments towards this direc-

tion.

The expansion of TUI Germany also applies

on 1-2-FLY. The brand is being re-

positioned as one of the German tour oper-

ators with the biggest numbers of hotel-

units and the biggest geographical coverage

worldwide. Florian Fleischer says: In Greece

for instance 1-2-FLY will offer in 2015 sev-

eral new destinations such as Mykonos, San-

Florian Fleischer:

Lets create more products for modern lifestyle customers! Hannover Florian Fleischer, TUI Germany Product Manager East Mediterranean in an interview with My Greek TUI

Friends about the need for new products in young & modern segments.

pa3ge

torini, Karpathos, Thasos, Lesvos and Sa-

mos. This is a really impressive expansion.

Florian Fleischer is convinced that TUI

Germany has good growth opportunities in

Greece. There are several segments of

tourism that in Greece havent been really

utilized yet. He points out that the coun-

try has an astonishing diversity of natural

landscapes. This is one of the countrys real

competitive advantages. The majority of

tourism in Greece is concentrated around

the major coastal sun & beach places.

Yet, Greece has much more to offer. Not

far from the coast the countrys mountain

areas have outstanding opportunities for

both summer and winter holidays. So, there

is still huge growth potential for Greece.

German visitor arrivals in Greece in total since 1980. The chart illustrates the decrease since 2007

and the amazing comeback of German visitors in Greece in 2013 and 2014. During the hard years

for Greek tourism in 2011 and 2012, affected by the bad publicity due to the financial crisis, TUI

Germany continued to promote Greece as a friendly and safe holiday destinations for German

visitors. After the turnaround in 2013/14 it is very likely that in 2015 the all-time record of Ger-

man arrivals in Greece will be broken with over 3 million visitors. Germany thus, remains the

biggest source market for Greece, followed by the UK and the Scandinavian countries.

Florian Fleischer praises the cooperation with TUI Hellas and points to the importance of having trusted

colleagues in the destinations. The excellent cooperation we have with our colleagues in Greece is a very

important factor. We have highly professional colleagues there and Id like to clearly acknowledge the work

that all our Greek colleagues at TUI Hellas are doing. We really appreciate that! This is not only important because we

feel well when we come to Greece, but it is of a major importance for the customers .

Pro

uso

s, E

vritania

- C

entr

al G

reece

TUI France/Marmara. The Athenian excursion masters. Athens TUI France/Marmara Reps in Athens, Sandy Fouya, Maria Zarokosta, Sandrine Belville and Leonidas

Efthymiou have been awarded by Stella Chroni, Operations Manager and Hicham El Koudia, Area Manager

for their outstanding excursion sales results.

From left: Maria Zarokosta (left) and Sandy Fouya (right) rewarded

by Hicham El Koudia for their excellent sales performance the in

TUI France/Marmara Club Golden Coast in Marathon (Athens).

If you cant smile, dont open a shop, a

Chinese proverb says, but this is some-

thing our TUI France/Marmara Reps obvi-

ously do not need to be told. Three smil-

ing charming ladies Sandy, Maria, San-

drine and a gentleman, Leonidas have

been rewarded with a voucher 50 euro

each by Stella Chroni, TUI Hellas Opera-

tions Manager and Hicham El Koudia,

Area Manager, for their outstanding sales

performance. Statistically they sell at least

one excursion to each arriving client. With

this performance, the Athens team ranks

first among TUI France/Marmara in

Greece. Both, Golden Coast in Marathon

and Lena Mary in Ermioni, offer excellent

excursion opportunities, while the best

selling trips is: HYDRA ISLAND. On an

exclusively chartered boat our clients sail

to the picturesque island of Hydra in the

Saronic Gulf. Built amphitheatrically on a

steep coast bay, the little port town with

its narrow alleys is considered as one of

the most beautiful spots in Greece. The

best thing about Hydra is that there are

no cars allowed on the island. Maria &

Sandy from Golden Coast and Leonidas &

Sandrine from Lena Mary, truly emerge

the TUI SPIRIT with their excellent per-

formance. A great team combining wits

and customer oriented services! , Stella

Chroni acknowledged. Hicham El Koudia

said: Thanks to their team spirit, our

representatives have succeeded to

achieve best results as well as customer

satisfaction. Congratulations to each of

them. Bravo et merci beaucoup Team

Marmara!

v

Photo

: H

yd

ra isl

and

Madame Sophie, customer of Mar-

mara spent her holiday with her

daughter Laura at Lena Mary Hotel,

when the Rep teams were informed

that Laura would need to leave from

the hotel earlier than planned due to

family reasons. The problem was that

her daughter was underage (17

years) and couldnt let her leave wit-

hout an escort. The team offered to

provide her free transfer together

with other Marmara-guests departing

on that day to the airport but the

flight times didnt match. So Hicham,

suggested to her to go by boat to

Piraeus Port in Athens and was wai-

ting there with a taxi to escort her to

the airport. When they arrived, the

airline gave him the ticket to Rome,

but he found out that she would miss

the second flight. Since it wasnt

possible to change the second flight,

the only solution was to book

another flight. The calm girl was get-

ting in panic. And yet, the adventure

wasnt over. When she wanted to

take money from the cash machine it

didnt work, so they had another

three cash machines before they got

the money and paid the ticket. With

all these, there were only 35 min. left

for the departure of the flight to

Rome. The charming young lady

thanked Hicham for his efforts and

asked him if there was time to invite

him to McDolnald's before depar-

ture Maybe to be continued in Ro-

me?

Little Laura & the helping hand of TUI Athens TUI France/Marmara Area Manager Hicham El Koudia and

Rep Leonidas being acknowledge by their client Sophie & Laura.

Sandrine & Leonidas rewarded by Stella & Hicham for their top

sales performance at Club Marmara Lena Mary in Ermioni. From

left: Sandrine Belville, Stella Chroni, Hicham El Koudia and Leoni-

das Efthymiou.

pa5ge

Summerfreeze in Skiathos for warm children smiles Skiathos TUI UK & Ireland organized an ice-bucket event for supporting the British charity FHA

Some cool news came up from the

beautiful island of Skiathos this sum-

mer. The Ice Bucket Challenge

which has experienced great populari-

ty during the last period, was a source

of inspiration for our TUI UK col-

leagues - lets not forget the numer-

ous celebrities who have already tak-

en it such as the famous actors Jen-

nifer Aniston and Leo DiCaprio. Geor-

gia, Erin, Emily, Helen, Lucy, Jamie,

Natalie and Sarah started to motivate

the guests and managed to attract

almost 50 of them coming from the

hotel Troulos Bay, the surrounding

hotels and from the nearby beach.

Then the members of the British

team felt like celebrities for a few

seconds as their bodies were freezing

from the iced cold water that the cus-

tomers poured over them. Ouch.

But the few seconds of the cold ex-

perience were followed from hours of

warm feelings. The purpose of such

initiatives is to collect donation for

charity organizations that help people

who really need it. In this case all the

money collected was donated to the

Family Holiday Association (FHA).

This is a British charity organization

which helps families who cannot go

on holidays, e.g. because they cannot

afford. The total amount collected

was 188 and we truly hope it will facilitate to achieve some more chil-

dren smiles. The Resort Team Manag-

er in Skiathos Helen Rowland is ex-

pressing her satisfaction for this

event: Lots of fun and raising money

for a great cause. Thank You all for

your support and donations to such a

worthy cause. We are confident that

more such initiatives will take place in

the future.

Our colleagues who participated: Georgia Archer, Erin Denton, Emily Copeland, Helen Rowland, Lucy Hall, Jamie white, Natalie

Tredinnick, Sarah Holmes-Siedle.

And after the ice bucket event of

TUI UK in Skiathos, here comes

another initiative from our British

colleagues this time in the island of

Crete. On Sunday 5th October, a

selection of the TUI UK Holiday

Experience Team embarked on .

their foot and crossed Europes

longest Gorge in the aid of charity.

This was the 3rd year that such

event was running and proved for

once more to be success since an

amount of total 600 euros was col-

lected from customers, friends and

families to be donated to the UK

Charities NSPCC and Family Holiday

Association. This raised the total

Charity of TUI UK in Crete for this

summer to over 8,000 euros! Moreo-

ver Dawn Fischer, Area Manager

Crete, Santorini, Mykonos & Samos,

comments that the event was such

a huge success thanks to TUI Hellas

for organising the transportation

and the excellent guide. Of course

there were a were a few blisters

found in some feet after the 18km

trek through the gorge but all was

made better with a pint of beer in

true British style at the end to mark

the occasion!

Crete UI UK & Ireland Crete Crosses the Samaria Gorge for charity

Foot blisters ease the pain

pa6ge

The Invasion! Rhodes For one day our office in Rhodes was under siege by some seventy little pirates. All our colleagues in

Rhodes tried to defend the TUI-fortress, but were conquered by the charming smiles of the invaders!

Our tiny friends from the Kindergarten of the Col-

league of Rhodes visited our office in Rhodes as

part of the World Tourism Day. After their arrival,

Manos Doulgeris, TUI Hellas Destination Manager

welcomed the 68 kindergarten children and the 4

teachers together with Barbara Kirchner, Destina-

tion Manager of One Service Rhodes, and Efi Kara-

mouzi. The kids gave their present, which was a

collage they had made concerning TUI & Tourism.

Roger Wellington, Team Manager of TUI UK, was

excited about their visit and brought spontaneous-

ly from his office sun heads for all kids. Afterwards

the kids visited in small groups our offices in the 1st

floor, the transfer department, the excursion de-

partment and the reservation department. Our

staff explained to the kids what they are doing and

how they are helping the tourist during their holi-

days. On the ground floor a welcome from the

representatives of the tour operators followed, in

German, French, English, Italian, Dutch and Polish

and the kids learnt in all these languages to say

hello and welcome. Before their departure,

they received our present which was for each kid a

TUI bag filled with juice, cookies,

note books, pencils and some

wonderful pictures were taken

outside the building around the

TUI smile.

pa8ge

Lets make people smile and why not

thinking about it a little bit further, like

saying Lets make children smile? Sounds

like an interesting idea and thus, TUI Hel-

las decided to support the Greek Non-

Profit organization The Smile of the

Child. Just to give a brief description, the

organizations main concern is defending

children's rights providing services to chil-

dren on a 24/7 basis, working for their

physical, mental, and psychological stabil-

ity. It cooperates closely with the Greek

state authorities (Police, the General At-

torneys Office, Hospitals etc.), but also

with all responsible individuals wishing to

contribute to alleviate issues affecting chil-

dren. Therefore, our companys aim was to

contribute for the children that dont have

the chance to enjoy the pleasure of holi-

days.

This year, 22 children were hosted in the 5

star resort hotel Aldemar Olympian Vil-

lage located in the area Skafidia of Pelo-

ponnese (the big Greek Peninsula) from

the 22nd till the 26th of June. TUI Hellas

facilitated all the accommodation arrange-

ments and took over the roundtrip trans-

fers, contributing to a total package of

services valued approximately 2,000 euros.

Our small visitors adored the endless

hours of pleasure spent in the pools, the

slides, the bike rides and the other facili-

ties that could be found there. But the

most important of all was the warm hug

and love that they received from all the

local staff. From our end we wish to ex-

press our satisfaction for the overall suc-

cess of this initiative and that we will con-

tinue our efforts for making even more

children smile.

The letter of appreciation of the NGO Childrens

Smile to TUI Hellas for the support a vacation pro-

gramme for 22 children in need, worth 2,000.

Lets makechildren smile! Peloponnese TUI Hellas arranges accommodation and transfers for 22 children in need.

Food for thought! Thessaloniki TUI Hellas driving service quality improvements in Greek tourism.

The Hellenic Association of Hotels in Hal-

kidiki organized a very interesting confer-

ence on the 26th of September at the

Pomegranate spa hotel in New Potidea. Its

topic was Todays Challenges for the

Tourism of Halkidiki. Executives both

from the public sector (prefectures and

local services) and the private sector

(hotels etc.) were all there, in order to

listen to the market specialists, exchange

ideas and export some valuable conclu-

sions for the future steps needed. TUI

Hellas was represented by Popi Tassiogia-

nopoulou, Operations Excellence Manager

and Dora Pappa, Marketing Manager. Popi

hold a speech presenting the TUI Hellas

approach regarding quality in ser-

vice. Our presentation lasted for half an

hour and it managed to generate the best

impressions according to the feedback we

received from the rest of the participants.

Among other, it was commented that TUI

Hellas presentation provided essential

food for thought about the necessary

actions for the development of Tourism in

the area. Popi showed the TUI service

quality approach with the 360 degrees

experience touch points, differentiation

elements and key performance indicators

(KPIs). Overall, it was pointed out that

our strategy is quality driven and it was a

very pleasant surprise for all of us when it

was proven that this is also clearly aligned

with the strategy of the organization

Marketing Greece (a non-profit organi-

zation that acts as the official representa-

tive of the Greek Tourism Industry). In-

teresting slides, catchy videos and lots of

other means were all used in order to

transfer our key messages to the audi-

ence. In TUI nothing is left on its chance

as the maximization of the quality stand-

ards is our daily way of work. Through our

session we also brought into attention

some issues and areas to improve. Yet,

this was received as fruitful feedback

which can be taken seriously into consid-

eration for potential future actions.

Popi Tassiogiannopoulou, Operations Excel-

lence Manager on stage.

From left: Gregory Tassios, Anna Macheridou, Spyros

Hiropoulos, P. Tassiogiannopoulou and Dora Pappa.

Speak if you have something to

say that I stronger than silence -

or otherwise keep our silence!

Rather fail

with honor,

than succeed

by fraud. Sophocles - Philoctetes

403 BC

, ,

.

[, , , ]

Sophocles from Kolonos/Athens was, next

to Aeschylus and Euripides, one the greatest

theater play writers of ancient times (2.400

years ago). It is believed that he had written

120 tragedies, of which only 7 have survived

in a our times in a complete form. Yet, these

are of an amazing emotional and intellectual brilliance. He

brought several innovations in the art of theater by intro-

ducing a third actor, by deepening the characters and by

composing more complex conflicts. Until nowadays, his

main work Antigone is being regarded as one of the great-

est representatives of the foundation of European Civiliza-

tion (Humanism).

Photo: The Nike of Samothrace is one of the greatest

masterpieces of ancient Greek sculpture arts. It dynamically

depicts the Greek Goddess of Victory (called Nike), with

open wings in exact symmetry. The 2,44 m high statue, has

been designed by expressing the powerful appearance of the

human feeling of winning and succeeding. Her compelling

form was underpinned by the move of her arms, which un-

fortunately have been found only in fragments. Her right

arm was raised to the sky while her left hand was cupped

around her mouth, delivering the shout of victory.

The Nike of Samothrace can be seen in the Louvre Museum, Paris.

Euripides Herakles Mainomenos (v. 95-105)

416 B.C.

Euripides from

Phlya in Ath-

ens (today: Cha-

landri) is the

latest and most

influential of the

three greatest

ancient theater

play writers. He composed more than 90

plays of which 19 have survived. He revo-

lutionized the art of theater in multiple

ways and innovated to such an amazing

degree that several of his principles are

still valid in nowadays cinema. Thanks to

the astonishing intellectual and philo-

sophical depth of his work, Euripides has

been called the Philosopher on the thea-

ter stage, strongly influenced by the

great Philosophers of his time. Conse-

quently, in his theatrical masterpieces,

Euripides focuses on moral questions and

the contrasts of the human soul. He

shows his characters in strongest contra-

dictions and complex dilemmas on how to

act and react, how to behave and what

decision to take. He shows the eternal

human struggle between rational and

emotional decisions.

Apart from the high quality of his works

as such, his most obvious and most revo-

lutionary contribution is the way he deals

with various social groups and their sta-

tus and rank in the society of his time.

Euripides is being regarded as the most

free-thinking and progressive of all poets

and writers of his time, as he is breaking

with the tradition to show Kings and He-

roes as superhumans, untouched by mis-

fortunes and fate. Euripides instead shows

Kings crying and Heroes failing and de-

picts them as normal people in ordinary

situations. Furthermore, he shocked the

audience in Athens watching his plays, by

radically questioning existing beliefs and

norms. For he shows great sympathy to

social groups having a subordinate rank

in the society of his time. He focuses on

the efforts and struggles of women

(Medea; Alkestis; Electra); he questions the

role of slaves, by showing them rather as

advisers than as workers; he even por-

trays Gods as being less virtuous than

humans. He massively attacks the politi-

cal leaders of his time for fanaticizing the

citizens and through his theater plays he

constantly calls the audience for hope and

peace. His play Trojan Women is con-

sidered as one of the greatest anti-war

works of all times.

The free-thinker and brilliant theater

playwriter Euripides not only was a direct

result of the cultural bloom which the

invention of Democracy had caused, he

went further, tested the limits of demo-

cratic society and, thus, pushed the

boundaries of it. For all these reasons, his

plays are still nowadays being adapted

and interpreted, 2400 years after they

were composed by Euripides in Athens.

Ph

oto

: Euri

pid

es

Medea

Misfortunes will somewhere have a stop. The stormy wind does not always blow so strong.

Great good fortune will come in the end. For all things change.

The bravest man is he who trusts his hopes.

The one thing that never changes, is that we are

always changing!

pa11ge

London He looks back to an interesting and successful international journey of 22 years within the company whereas Greece, in partic-

ular, keeps a special place in his heart. Not only did he spend 17 of these years in Greece, it was here, in the picturesque tiny island of

Paxos, where he started his career as a Transfer & Airport Rep. He might have left Hellas several years ago, being now based in the UK,

but as soon as the talk comes to Greece, he outshines with detailed knowledge about the country and its people, as much as about the

tourism market here. The GRexpert Sean Parker, TUI UK & Ireland General Manager, Holiday Experience Greece, Lapland, 24/7 Holi-

dayline and 2wentys in an interview with My Greek TUI Friends about the 2014 performance of TUI UK & Ireland globally and in

Greece, about strategy, innovation and the need for change.

pa12ge

MyGreekTUIFriends Good Afternoon Sean - or should we

rather say kalispera? Sean Parker

(laughing) Well, its quite true that after

having lived several years in Greece, its

always a pleasure to me to listen and

say some words in Greek. Especially

after TUI UK & Ireland has had such a

successful season in Greece this sum-

mer. And I am very glad to hear that

this is a very successful season for the

Greek tourism industry as a whole. The

country has dreamful growth rates in

tourism, which, of course, is very im-

portant for the Greek economy overall.

MyGreekTUIFriends

Greeces tourism seems to take benefit

of the improvement of the countrys

image abroad, after having had some

difficulties in 2012 - to put it frankly.

Sean Parker The austerity measures taken in order

to cope with the financial crisis indeed,

caused many misleading headlines in

the newspapers in the UK. But Greece

quickly managed to improve the coun-

trys image abroad. The negative public-

ity anyway was just headlines and didnt

correspond to what was the real situa-

tion in Greece. The country remained a

friendly and safe destination and we as

TUI UK & Ireland stood up for that and

continued to offer unique holidays in

Greece. The majority of customers want

to get back to Greece and this isnt

without reason. Greece is a wonderful

place and one of the most popular holi-

day destinations of the British. Its not

only me who always feels welcomed in

Greece - it is our customers who visit

the country and experience the great

hospitality and that is what makes the

difference.

MyGreekTUIFriends The feeling is one thing, the other thing

is the quality of services and facilities.

So, how is the cooperation with the

Greek hoteliers and suppliers?

Sean Parker

At the recent Gold Awards it was

Greece with the highest number of

awarded hotels. The 10 Greek out of a

total of 19 winning hotels were picked

based on their feedback scores from

Customer Satisfaction Questionnaires

(CSQs), completed by Thomson and

First Choice holidaymakers. This shows

that our Greek partners are doing a

great job in supporting our differentia-

tion strategy and our vision for making

travel experiences special. The custom-

ers acknowledge that. We increased our

capacities to Greece in 2014 by more

than 10% compared to 2013 and we

saw a huge demand for our holiday

packages in Greece. Pity there were

some stop sales in certain partner ho-

tels during the season, so we only got

close to double-digit rates this year in

Greece. The good cooperation we have

with our suppliers in Greece not only

enables us to overcome any difficulties

occurring, it also allows us to work to-

gether with them on how to further

improve guest satisfaction and how to

create future growth. We clearly com-

Do it! Dont overdo it! In 2014 the British Embassy in Greece (as well as in other popular holiday destination of young British)

launched a campaign to raise awareness among young British holidaymakers called Holiday Hangover.

Through a range of materials including posters, wristbands, lanyards and beer mats, the British Govern-

ment aims to remind young British travellers to take care while on holiday; to have fun but be aware of

the consequences of their actions.

With Greece receiving close to 2 million British visitors annually, the

British Consular Network in Greece is committed to taking steps to

work with local authorities, local communities and stakeholders to

ensure that as many British

visitors enjoy safe and problem-

free holidays. Since 2012 the

British Embassy has run the

campaign with the recurring

message that what you do on

holiday has consequences. So,

do it, dont overdo it!

Follow the British Embassys campaign on https://twitter.com/HangoverSB

municate this toward our partners and

given that Greece, together with Spain,

are our main growth areas, it is im-

portant to invest in differentiated ho-

tels in these destinations. Our new

Holiday Village in Ibiza for instance

targeting young & modern lifestyle

groups was our best seller this season.

Great new products help keep the mo-

mentum behind our strong perfor-

mance.

MyGreekTUIFriends Speaking of young products, Greece is

also an important destination for

younger British holidaymakers. Being in

charge of the Youth Brands for the

whole Mediterranean, what is the per-

formance of that particular segment

this year?

Sean Parker Greece, indeed, is one of our biggest

selling youth destinations. Younger cus-

tomer groups are very important to our

success as a company, given these peo-

ple are both, keen to consume and very

active. They go on holidays for having

fun, so they love boat trips, sports,

shopping and nightlife. No surprise that

our young customers help us increase

our excursions sales results, which is

significantly higher than the average.

Apart from that, they play a very im-

portant role in filling our night time

flights, thus increasing flight occupan-

cies which is very crucial to the overall

success of our tour operator opera-

tions.

MyGreekTUIFriends Nevertheless, younger British holiday-

makers around the Mediterranean do

not remain without any criticism. Quite

often, there are newspaper headlines

about excessive use of alcohol, acci-

dents or violence. Not to speak of other

disturbing activities (smile). How do we,

as TUI, cope with such phenomena.

Sean Parker Well, wherever many young people

gather to have a fun time, its inevitable

that some of them overdo it and some-

times cause problems to others and

also to themselves. Yet, they are defi-

nitely not the majority. We need to

have a realistic view on young tourists

who want to get drunk and prefer loud

parties: they will go on holidays anyway.

So, its much better if they do so within

an organized and, thus, controlled

framework. We as TUI UK & Ireland

offer that frame. We first of all educate

and train our Youth Reps appropriately,

so they can keep an eye on the young

customers. We also work together with

the customers on health issues and on

how to be safe in destination. There are

also initiatives and public campaigns by

the UK-Embassies in the Mediterranean

countries aiming at raising awareness

https://twitter.com/HangoverSBhttps://twitter.com/HangoverSB

among young British for the safety is-

sues in the holiday destinations. The

campaign is called Holiday Hangover

and communicates to the young holi-

daymakers to have fun but not to over-

do it. I think that with such initiatives

and with our safety framework we man-

age to keep a balance and thats very

important for the customers, the locals

and the suppliers, as well as for us as a

company.

MyGreekTUIFriends Not all young customers do of course

have the same preferences and priori-

ties. What is TUI UK & Ireland doing in

attracting other sub-segments within the

Youth segment?

Sean Parker We have re-structured our youth

brands, further upgraded the quality

and rebranded to Thomson Scene.

We are thus opening to different

young customer groups. We call one

segment Thomson Scene Hub,

which is the former 2wentys) and

the other Thomson Scene Style. To

put it in simple words: We no longer

offer just Party Boat BBQs but also

Katamaran one/day sailing cruises.

The Scene Style is targeting young

people who have a lets say more

sophisticated approach on how their

holidays should be and dont primary

focus on partying and clubbing only.

Thats why we offer to them 4* and

even 5* hotels. We should also keep

in mind that young people dont stay

young for a lifetime. They will grow

older and will still go on holidays, but

they wont be so keen on partying

Click on the picture and see the ad of Thomson Scence.

WHAT'S YOUR SCENE?

There are two sides to Scene tackle the flow chart to find which tribe you belong to.

Source: www.thomson.co.uk

http://www.thomson.co.uk/holidays/scene

and clubbing anymore. We want to

offer to the customers unique travel

experiences when being young as well

as while getting older. The same cus-

tomers who now go on holidays with

Thomson Scene

wil l tomorrow

chose a Thomson

Couples or a

Thomson Plati-

num. Key for

achieving such customer loyalty is our

quality, our differentiated product

and our ever-lasting innovation.

MyGreekTUIFriends Innovation is an important key-word

when speaking of TUI. How does tech-

nology go along with our service qual-

ity?

Sean Parker The best way to ensure fully-fledged

customer service is to see the entire

travel experience through the eyes of

our customer. The customers experi-

e n c e

d o e s n t

start with

the check

-in at the

hotel and

ends with the check-out. The custom-

er experience starts earlier and ends

later. Our

360 custom-er journey

approach fo-

cuses exactly

on that. In

that context, technological innova-

tions provide very effective tools in

supporting the end-to-end customer

j o u r n e y . W e ' v e l a u n c h e d

MyThomson, a personal pre-

departure website for online custom-

ers and the MyThomson App, that

has been downloaded now over

650,000 times. Once logged in, the

customer is able to view useful infor-

mation such as the weather forecast

in his holiday destination, directions

to the airport from his house and var-

ious notifications. Further details

about the hotel and destination will

also be available via links to videos

and photos.

MyGreekTUIFriends So the personalized webpage

MyThomson, improves the customer

experience, once a customer has

booked a holiday. What about those

who havent done so yet and just look

around the web? Do you use any oth-

er tool to communicate with them?

Sean Parker Of course we do. Social media, for in-

stance, allow us getting in touch with

the customer at the beginning of the

experience cycle before even booking a

holiday and

ends long after

his return back

home in the UK,

sharing photos,

stories and rec-

ommendations. We have to be there

Tesoro Blu Hotel & Spa Kefalonia, Greece

Key for our customer loyalty is our

quality, our differentiated product

and our strive for innovation.

Weddings is a business field of TUI UK

& Ireland with great growth rates. Es-

pecially for Greece, demand is con-

stantly increasing. According to Sean

Parker weddings offer great growth

opportunities in Greece. The country is

an attractive destination for peoples

Big Day, but still doesnt take full ben-

efit of its comparative advantage.

Sean Parker explains that the whole

wedding business is basically built up-

on three major factors: Good weather

conditions and landscapes, cheaper

wedding prices than the UK and a flex-

ible organization & administration in

the destination. Greece combines per-

fectly 2 of the 3, but lacks in term of

flexibility of its public administration.

We see some difficulties of the Greek

municipalities to deal with our time

frames. Those Greek mayors whove

got the point, have developed their mu-

nicipalities to major wedding destina-

tions. We hope that others will under-

stand the great potential they have.

Our Weddings can, indeed, have a real-

ly strong further growth in Greece. It is

a win-win situation.

The end-to-end customer journey

starts earlier before booking and

ends later after his return home.

1,5M1,5M1,5M 795795795 arrivals

English holidaymakers in Greece

TUI & Rest of UK market in Greece

per

hea

d

per

hea

d

per

hea

d

exp

en

dit

ure

exp

en

dit

ure

exp

en

dit

ure

40,740,740,7%%% SeasonalitySeasonalitySeasonality (July + August arrivals as % of (July + August arrivals as % of (July + August arrivals as % of total annual UK arrivals in total annual UK arrivals in total annual UK arrivals in Greece. Lower than total aver-Greece. Lower than total aver-Greece. Lower than total aver-age of ca. 42%)age of ca. 42%)age of ca. 42%)

Top5Top5Top5UKUKUK 1.1.1. Corfu Corfu Corfu 2.2.2. HeraklionHeraklionHeraklion 3.3.3. Rhodes Rhodes Rhodes 4.4.4. Zante Zante Zante 5.5.5. KosKosKos

30% higher than the average of 30% higher than the average of 30% higher than the average of

what tourists spend in Greece. what tourists spend in Greece. what tourists spend in Greece.

15% more than in 2014 2nd biggest source market for Greece

Source: Bank of Greece /Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority. Processed figures TUI Hellas Marketing

Jan-Sept 2014

for the customer, so we plan to further

expand that and be talking to the cus-

tomers through social media through-

out all brands.

MyGreekTUIFriends Clear, as far as to how technological

innovations affect the predeparture

and pre-booking phase. But how does

technology improve the customer expe-

rience during his stay in the destina-

tion?

Sean Parker The customers experience when being

in the destination remains the most

important part of the whole customer

journey experience. Our exceptional

service is the very reason of our suc-

cess as a business and it is our people

who make the difference. Technologi-

cal innovation

transforms and

l i tera l ly re-

invents the way

we interact with

the customer in

destination and, thus, further boosts

customer satisfaction. This season, for

instance, we introduced iPads as new

tools for our Holiday Advisors includ-

ing certain applications. Now, the Reps

not only can make excursion bookings

comfortably through the iPad, they

furthermore can download their trans-

fer lists, get always updated material,

all can be done via Dropbox, Messen-

ger etc. Reps no longer need to rewrite

complaint forms, this can rather be

done directly through the online appli-

cation. The cus-

tomers problem

is being solved

instantly. And

this really helps

satisfy custom-

ers. All this, makes the work of our

Holiday Advisors easier and quicker,

improve the service to the customer

and open up a whole range of new

possibilities for future innovations. We,

as TUI, not only are we ready for the

future we shape it. We always need

to change. Actually, the one thing that

never changes, is that we are always

changing.

Innovation transforms and re-

invents the way we interact with

our customers

In the last edition of My Greek TUI

Friends (ed. 01/14: page 10-12), Barbara Kirch-

ner, Destination Manager One Service Rhodes in

an interview about the main features of a most

interesting and most successful trial.

L ike them on Facebook: https ://

www.facebook.com/oneservicerhodes?pnref=lhc

MyGreekTUIFriends Within our company change and pro-

gress goes even beyond fascinating

new technologi-

cal innovations.

It also concerns

new schemes

and set-ups of

our business. In Rhodes we saw this

year the implementation of the One

Service project. How is the outcome

after one year in trial?

Sean Parker This is the most important of all changes

in terms of how we operate our service

in resort at mainstream level. The pilot

project in Rhodes was a real success.

Barbara Kirchner and her team did an

absolutely fantastic job there and this

was not an easy task at all. I am really

impressed with the attitude of the team

in Rhodes who fully embraced the pro-

ject and lead it to success. They deliv-

ered on target for TUI UK & Ireland and

the customer satisfaction scores are

higher than ever. At the Atlantica Aege-

an Blue in Rhodes we tried a joined chil-

dren animation

for TUI customers

from all our

source markets.

For the first time

the children of our customers regardless

from which country they came, were

playing together they loved it! This

proves that an even closer cooperation

will further strengthen our business. We

are ready for the next stage. It is a major

challenge but we are passionately work-

ing on bringing this one step further

ahead. No doubt, we will achieve that!

MyGreekTUIFriends Sean, thank you very much for your time

and we all hope to see you back to

Greece soon.

Sean Parker My pleasure. Efharisto poly! My very best

regards to all our colleagues in Greece

and really hope to see you soon.

Atlantica Club Aegean Blue Rhodes, Greece

An even closer cooperation will

further strengthen our business.

https://www.facebook.com/oneservicerhodes?pnref=lhchttps://www.facebook.com/oneservicerhodes?pnref=lhc

Witamy na TUI!

Witamy na Grecji*

Rhodes Not only is this the first time Paulina Grzelka is visiting Greece, it also is her very first season as a Holiday Advisor for

TUI Poland. She whispered her impressions to My TUI Greek Friends. A story about friendship and the spirit of OneTUI.

OneTeam, OneSpirit, OneService

A beautiful island, nice weather and very

helpful team - this was my first impression

of Rhodes my first destination as a

Polish rep. I was excited, full of motivation

and I wanted to give my best to make sat-

isfy my guests, my boss and of course also

myself.

In Turkey I was trained by the TUI Service

Academy all the necessary basics of the

job as a rep. The Greek hospitality of our

colleagues at TUI Hellas made me feel

welcome straight away. In the first weeks

of my work my colleagues from the Polish

and German team showed me the most

important structures of our day to day

business on the island. Also my colleagues

from other source markets were very

friendly and helpful to me. From the very

first moments I got a feeling, that I'm not

alone here and I have a lot of people

around me, who would help me in any

difficult situation. I've understood what

ONE SERVICE means.

This summer was full of Welcome meet-

ings, because we had, an extra flight day

compared to last year. The Polish guests

are spread in many hotels and all want to

meet you on the first day of their holidays

so I know the roads on Rhodes very well

by now.

My job as a rep is not always easy, but

gives me a lot of satisfaction, because eve-

ry day I have the possibility to make a lot

of people happy. I love to promote the

island, to show the guests extraordinary

places here on Rhodes and to see in their

eyes some kind of excitement about the

island.

When I had the possibility to accompany

an excursion and to take part in the Island

tour together with my Polish guests., it

was a completely new and very nice expe-

rience for me, because I did what I love

showing other people the beauty of the

world.

Of course if you make this job, not every

day is nice and easy. Diplomacy, patience

and positive attitude towards other people

are the most important qualifications for

this job.

After 6 months on the beautiful island in

Rhodes I can say, that Im happy that I got

the chance to work with fantastic people,

in a very nice environment. Somehow I feel

that already after only one season I have

experienced many unique stories to fill

whole book.

Paulina Grzelka

Welcome to TUI - Welcome to Greece

pa18ge

They were talking

with their hearts

Heraklion Every destination, every place and every city has a story to tell and each story is different.

Our colleague Rena Iliou from Crete writing in My Greek TUI Friends about the 400 year old story of

Erotokritos & Aretousa. An alluring Cretan folk literature about true love, friendship & courage.

Erotokritos, Part III, v.600

The city of Heraklion in Crete, known as

Candia (Italian: Ducato di Candia) during the

island's period as an overseas colony of the

Republic of Venice, has a lot of stories and

tails to share with us.

Walking around the city you come across a

square, named after Vitsenzos Kornaros

(1553 to approx.1614), composer of the epic

poem Erotokritos, which is regularly per-

formed around Crete, and still evokes pride

in every Cretan heart. In the heart of this

square stands still the statue of Erotokritos

and Aretousa revealing the story of sere-

nades, gallant deeds, secrets and revela-

tions, jousting, tears, finger-rings, vows of

never-ending love, fatal duels and tourna-

ments all serving to compose the tale of the

lovesick hero and his beloved princess. A

great story of true love, friendship, courage,

and patriotism; an epic love poem that has

become a fundamental piece of the Cretan

romantic tradition, Erotokritos a name that

in free translation means the one that has

been tortured by love.

The plot revolves around the dramatic love

of Erotokritos, a singer, son of Kings advis-

er and princess Aretousa, the daughter of

the King. Being from an inferior social class

to the princess, any relationship between

them was impossible and as it was forbid-

den that time to reveal his love, Erotokritos

disguises himself and starts singing love

songs under her window every evening.

Nights are passing by and slowly the prin-

cess falls in love with the unknown singer,

but since nothing remains secret in the

castle, her father, learns about the evening

visitor and organizes an ambush to arrest

him. Although Erotokritos was lead in pris-

on, he escapes but soon after, he realizes

that his love will not have a happy ending;

sadness takes over him and travels to for-

get.

Many nights without a sweet song from the

beloved one under her window, Aretousa,

realizes that she misses him, she loves the

man to whom she had only seen the shad-

ow and starts looking for him. Her steps

lead her to the house of Erotokritos and

the discovery of the identity of her secret

admirer makes her fall into deep sadness.

Attempting to help his daughter to over-

come her sadness, the King organizes fights

of jousting, where Erotokritos participates,

wins and receives the prize for his victory

from the hands of his beloved princess.

Victory gives him the courage to dare and

to request Aretousa to marriage. The king,

however, gets furious, exiles Erotokritos

and forces his daughter to marry the suc-

cessor to the throne of Byzantium. Are-

tousa denies so the king confines her in a

dark, humid dungeon, where she remains

for many harmful years, suffering many

hardships.

Then a war bursts and the Kingdom is in

danger. Erotokritos changes his appear-

ance, joins the Kings troops to help his

homeland. During a battle, when Kings life

was in danger, he was the brave one to

save him. The end of the war finds Eroto-

kritos seriously wounded. He is brought to

the royal palace, where he stays until he is

cured.

Although the King wants to express his

gratitude and to hand over to him half his

kingdom, Erotokritos denies and asks of

him to release Aretousa and allow him to

marry her. Aretousa being faithfully to her

true love refuses to marry a stranger and

that was the moment when Erotokritos

reveals his real identity by singing one of

his beautiful songs, the princess recognizes

the voice and realizes that there is no shad-

ow standing in front of her but the silhou-

ette of the man she loves...

A contemporary interpretation of V. Kornaros theater play Erotokritos, as composed by Stathis Livathinos. Theater Akropol, Athens.

Click on the pictures (right) and see

some videos of the music & theater

performance of Erotokritos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaKF_rKmhAUhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqrbXHW3Iswhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v197dtYFvl0

Red Devils

United Angels!

Ann Soetewey For the first time in ages our Belgian Red Devils

were ready to play again in the World Cup! This was a very excit-

ing thing in Belgium considered the political issues that are (still

or again) going on in our country! Consequently, the Football

World Cup was a Belgian thing we all were looking forward to.

As soon as the World Cup started, things in Belgium were heating

up heavily. Flags everywhere, big screens on every town square,

special events

And here in our holiday destinations, it was the only thing our

customers were talking about. So, all Jetair teams in almost all summer destinations organized several events. Of course, we in

Zakynthos couldnt stay behind. And what a success it was! Even

with a small volume of arriving guests, we managed to organize a

great Red-Devil night every time our heroes played a match! With

some extra information inside our transfer bus and welcome en-

velopes we managed to convince our customers.

It was nice to see that the more victories our football team

achieved during the World Cup, the more people wanted to be

part of our events we organized for them.

During the first match we had about 10 people joining, while at

the last match they were more than 30!

Despite the fact that we lost that last game against Argentina in

the Quarter Finals, all our clients loved it and were glad to be

there in Tasos Bar in Laganas/Zakynthops with us, Jetair!

Because we are a divided country in terms of languages, we feel

sometimes divided as well: The Flemish-speaking on the one side

and the French-speaking on the other side.

It was beautiful to see that in the end, these things do not really

matter... When it comes to football, we are Belgians... and RED

DEVILS :-)

Zakynthos Our Jetair colleagues in Zakynthos proved that Football & Tourism is a matter of Friendship that unites people! Ann

Soeteweys, Chief Rep of Jetair in Zakynthos for My Greek TUI Friends! about Jetair uniting people.

+++Belgium-Algeria 2-1+++Belgium-Russia 1-0+++South KoreaBelgium 0-1+++Belgium-USA 2-1(aet)+++

Argentina-Belgium 1-0+++ FIFA World CUP Brazil 2014 +++ Royal Belgian Football Association+++

Ann and Gregory (left photo) in the colors of the Belgian national football team at the airport of Zakynthos. The arriving Jetair-Guests

were positively surprised by our nice colleagues, who invited them to a joint football watching event. The supporter of the Red Devils

found an excellent opportunity to meet with countrymen in Zakynthos and celebrate the great performance of the Belgian team, sur-

rounded by national flags and Jetair-Flags with the TUI smile :-)

The Race for Cure is

one of the most signifi-

cant global initiatives to

raise peoples awareness

on the prevention of

breast cancer. It has

been organized for 31

years now, in more than

140 cities worldwide by

the American organiza-

tion Susan G. Komen. In

Greece it is organized for

the 6th consecutive year

by the Greek National

Association of Women

with Breast Cancer "Alma

Zois. The Greek Race for

Cure consists of a sym-

bolic 5km Road Race and

a 2km walk starting every

year from the well-

known Greek Cultural

activities and exhibitions

center Zappeio, gathering

thousands of men, wom-

en and children running

or walking to honor their

loved ones and help

global fight against

breast cancer. The aim of

the event is to raise

Greek peoples aware-

ness about the disease

and methods of preven-

tion - early diagnosis, as

well as the raising of fi-

nancial resources for the

implementation of pro-

grams against breast

cancer.

TUIgether in the Race for Cure Athens: TUI Hellas participates in the 6th Race for Cure and fights against the Breast Cancer

Sylvia Fakitsa was the inventor of the motto

TUIgether

which had a great resonance within and beyond the

participants of TUI Hellas at the event.

The 6th Race for Cure in Greece,

took place on the 28th of September

starting from Zappeio. The peoples

participation (and the one of several

dogs as well) was just amazing!

Messages and information could be

found everywhere bringing the most

possible optimistic air in the atmos-

phere! They were even written on t-

shirts or announced from the loud

speakers. Special mention is worth

to be done for the cured women

runners who were wearing pink t-

shirts bringing the survivors and

winners messages to the surface.

TUI Hellas took part with its own

team in the 2km walk with 32 par-

ticipants. Our colleague Sylvia

Fakitsa from the HR department

invented the motto of the team

which was TUIgether while Nikos

Kokosis became the active leader of

the team taking all necessary initia-

tives to coordinate our colleagues.

The overall motivation was high and

everybody seemed to enjoy it! The

fee for each participant was 5 euros

while TUI Hellas added another 5

euros to "Alma Zois helping to

reach the total amount to 420 eu-

ros. We wish to thank every mem-

ber of our team that supported this

initiative and we are confident that

all our future efforts will continue

with the same spirit.

Your Excellency... the Ambassadors of TUI Germany in Greece. Athens: TUI Service Management team in Greece having the honor to be invited to the Celebration of the German National Day at the Residence of the German Ambassador in Athens.

Politicians, Ambassadors, Industrials and

Artists who gathered again this year at the

annually held Celebration of the German

National Day on the 3rd October at the

Residence of the German Ambassador in

Athens, this time found themselves among

some special smiles: those of TUI. After

having delighted some 400.000 German TUI

-guests in Greece this season, the Manage-

ment of TUI Service together with col-

leagues from TUI Hellas had good reasons

to be in happy mood. The high-ranked

guests at the event took positive notice of

the proud representatives of the biggest

German tour operator in Greece, many of

which had the opportunity to have a chat

about the record breaking performance of

Greek tourism this year, and especially

from the German market, which is the big-

gest source market for Greek tourism. The

German Embassy consequently couldnt

restrain from supporting further tourism

growth in Greece. The Embassy keeps fruit-

ful relations with TUI as well as with other

German tour operators and promotes cer-

tain tourism development projects in

Greece.

Formal and official - and yet celebrative. Thorsten Harder, Andreas Ehli,

Klaus Haller and Yannis Zontanos Head of Finance TUI Hellas.

The team of TUI Service shaking hands with the German Ambassador.

Willkommen in Athen.

The German Ambassador Dr. P. Schoof was charmed by the whole

team. Here with Mariejetta Trltzsch (l) and Frauke Hartmann (r).

TUI Service Elegance. The Management team of TUI Service at the Residence of the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany in Athens with the occasion of the celebration of the National Day (Reunification of Germany).

From left: Sarah Putscher (HER), Mariejetta Trltzsch (SKG), Panos Demetriou (HER), Astrid Kalteis (RHO), Frauke Hartmann (GPA), Thorsten Harder (KGS), Patrick Gayer (RHO), Ralf Becker (CFU), Klaus Haller (TUI Service AG),

Barbara Kirchner (RHO), Andreas Ehli (HER), Birgitta Klammroth (CHQ).

pa25ge

pa26ge

At the end of October, the MY MOMENTUM workshops tour finally

was completed with the workshop in Rhodes.

The MY MOMENTUM workshops lasted the whole summer and

were successfully delivered in Samos, Mykonos, Thessaloniki, Corfu,

Kefalonia, Zakynthos, Heraklion, Rethymno, Chania, Santorini, Ath-

ens and Rhodes.

Our key values have been communicated to our colleagues in the

destinations in Greece and all colleagues are fully dedicated to our

new culture of working together as One TUI!

A big thank you to all TUI Hellas Destinations Branch Offices and

their teams for sharing and continuing the culture of TUI.

Lets all keep up being Passionate, Trustworthy and Creative!

in Rhodes!

Heraklion

Its time to announce the Best Destination Employees of season 2014!

Let us congratulate you all on your achievement of winning the Best Destination Employee of the Season 2014 award! The way you have performed throughout the season shows your hard work, your trustworthiness, passion and creativity. Your colleagues have taken a note of that and appreciate your high level proficiency in handling the tasks assigned to you, your craving for perfection, your communication skills and your humble behavior with all the staff members. Our high participation with 178 total votes shows our interest in expressing appreciation for your contribu-tion, and we are thrilled with this overwhelming response, so a special thanks to everyone who voted! We expect the winners to keep the same spirit and we hope, we find many such opportunities to congratulate you in the future!

Please note that managers and supervisors were excluded from the process. Also, note that we didnt get any votes for Rethymno, Kefalonia, Araxos and Samos.

Ton

ia L

eve

nti

Athens HQ

Spyr

os

Kal

anto

nis

Athens

Ele

na

Pan

dra

The winners are

Corfu

Ioan

na

Ko

nzi

ali

Chania

Evan

gelo

s K

okk

inak

is

Mykonos

Ch

risti

na

Kar

agia

nn

i

Skiathos

Pan

telis

Mal

igia

nn

is

Santorini

Mar

tha

Ipsi

lou

Rhodes

De

spin

a A

nd

riko

u

Halkidiki

An

na

Mac

he

rid

ou

Zakynthos

Efst

ath

ios

Pis

kop

os

again

.

Culture unearthed

Thessaloniki A spectacular new archaeological finding in the Region of Macedonia in Northern Greece, dated from the late 4th cen-

tury BC, the era of Alexander the Great, has attracted global attention. The excavations at the vast area of the burial site in Amphipolis

near Serres, the largest burial tomb ever found in Greece, are on progress since August and we all are waiting impatiently for the out-

come of the investigations. Who is buried in that absolutely stunning tomb? What has been found so far? What is it the archaeologists

will find next? And what are the opportunities for tourism? My Greek TUI Friends about the youngest and most fascinating archae-

ological finding in a country that is full with historical monuments and yet still seems to have many surprises hidden below your feet.

in Greece

Lio

n o

f A

mp

hip

olis

The Tumulus Tomb of Amfipolis lies on

the hill of Kasta inside a 500-meter long

surrounding wall of marble and limestone,

just 100 kms from the countrys second

largest city, Thessaloniki. The Marble Wall is

almost a perfect circle 3 meters high, with a

cornice of marble from the Aegean Island of

Thassos. It is supposed that this great tomb

and the surrounding wall with its special

base and unique design is the work of the

Architect Deinokratis, who lived at the time

of Alexander the Great. Deinokratis was

Alexander's chosen Architect and also a very

important person in the time of Alexander.

Archeologists uncovered the delicate struc-

ture with the latest finding being an impos-

ing ancient floor mosaic, 3m wide and 4.5m

long, composed by tiny pebbles of white,

black, blue, red and yellow, depicting a man

driving a chariot drawn by horses and led by

the Greek God Hermes. Other interesting

finds inside the tomb include two magnifi-

cent caryatids, sculpted female figures like

those of the Acropolis in Athens and the

two headless-wingless Sphinxes in its en-

trance. Also the Lion of Amfipolis, the mon-

ument that is located today near Amfipolis,

was once at the top of the ancient Tomb.

The most recent finding is a

During the progress of the works, the ex-

citement is growing more and more and

many scenarios are being discussed regard-

ing the identity of sites habitant. Dating

from the fourth century BC, obvious links

lead to Alexander the Great. And while his-

toric accounts show that Alexander is buried

elsewhere, his tomb has not been found,

thus fueling further speculation. Despite

what historians say, there are many who

argue that only Alexander could be buried in

such opulence. The Greek Government is

warning against unfounded reports, but at

the same time continues fueling public inter-

est, with almost daily reports from Amfipo-

lis. In any case, bets and sweepstakes have

also appeared to guess the occupant of the

tomb and some less serious than others,

mention names like "Indiana Jones".

Since the excavation began in August, hun-

dreds of tourists and local day-trippers have

flocked to Amfipolis hoping to catch a

glimpse of the site, while local media are

filled with lengthy reports of the archaeolo-

gists progress. A visit to the site by the

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, who

has described it as very important, has in-

creased local certainty about the significance

of the tomb. There is such wealth of herit-

age in Greece, often referred to as "the cra-

dle of civilization, and with tourism being its

second largest moneymaker after shipping,

the country is keen to promote it further.

3D-animation of the Amfipolis Tomb

http://www.theamphipolistomb.com/hillhttp://www.theamphipolistomb.com/wallhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtnjPJPul18http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=TtnjPJPul18#t=21

Amfipolis - A new emerging tourism destination? Serres My Greek TUI Friends in quest of tourism development opportunities in the area of Amfipolis

1. Lake Kerkini

2. Ano Cave

3. Lailia Forrest

4. Monastery of Timios Prodromos

5. The city of Serres

6. Koules Hill

7. Alistrati Cave

8. Agistro Thermal Springs

9. Archaeological Museum of Amphipolis

1&2

3

Lake Kerkini is a lake born after a dam was built in 1932 and with the pas-

sage of time, it has metamorphosed into a veritable paradise. A sanctuary for

birds and humans alike, the calm, unruffled lake offers itself for birdwatching

and boating, while its shores are perfect for cycling and walking. Try Kerkini for the

pause that refreshes. Kerkini Lake is also home of Buffaloes. These gentle beasts are

flourishing once more. You may see them wading in the lake. Look for buffalo milk

yogurt and the caramelised, custardlike sweet kazan dipi, a regional speciality. Eco-

tourism at its best at lake Kerkini.

1

Ano Poria is a mountain

village, nestled amidst in-

comparable scenery at the

foot of Mount Beles, is the

most developed in this hilly area.

Here youll find cosy hotels, cafes

and tavernas. Akritohori also has

hotels and is near the Timios Pro-

dromos monastery, which should be

on your must-see list.

2

Just 25km north of Serres youll find

yourself in the Lailia Forest, 330

hectares of pine and beech forest at

an altitude of 700-1,849m above sea level at its

highest peak. The forest is a genuine paradise,

home to 514 types of flora. It has been declared

a Natural Monument and a region of particular

Natural Beauty. In the forest the walking paths

E4 and E6 are passing through the Kapnofyto

and end up in Vrondou. The rich flora of the

region make it an ideal destination for nature

lovers, while during the winter the forest is cov-

ered in thick snow and attracts those who love

winter sports.

3

The whole area of Serres where Amfipolis is located, is not very well known as other Greek destinations, howev-

er here comes now a significant chance to change that and to reveal the natural beauties and the longhistory of

this marvelous place. My Greek TUI Friends spot the main highlights of a new emerging destination in North-

ern Greece.

The Monastery of Timios

Prodromos of Serres is an

important and extremely

beautiful pilgrimage. It is situated

12kms northeastern of Serres, at the

western part of a deep gorge of

mountain Menikio.

4

4

5&6

TUI Hellas Scout

7

8

9

The City of Serres is the regional capital. With a population

of 80,000, Serres is one of the administrative and economic

centers of Northern Greece. The city is situated in a fertile

plain at an elevation of about 70 metres. It lies 70 km north-

east of Thessaloniki. The city dates back to the 5th century BC, named

Siris or Sirra. It bloomed especially during the Byzantine age as well

as afterwards during the years of Turkish rule. Several monuments

from that era can be seen today. Serres is the capital of an agricultural

district. It has also become an industrial centre for the production

of textiles and other manufactured items. With some 10,000 students

Serres is a young and vibrant city with plenty of cafes, bars and restau-

rants.

Koulas Hill is a pine-

covered hill overlook-

ing the town of

Serres and is not just an at-

tractive backdrop, it contains

the ruins of a once mighty Byz-

antine acropolis. It was built on

an ancient fort used to defend

the city in the 5th century BC.

Climbing up one can admire

the view and while you can also

see the western tower of the

fortress, the so called Orestes

tower, which was part of the

inner wall. An inscribed foun-

dation stone dates it to 1350,

during the reign of the Serbian

king Stefan Dusan.

5

6

Alistrati cave is considered to be one of the largest and most beautiful ones in

Greece and in Europe and is the only cave operating in the Region of Macedonia. The

cave was known to the locals for many years, but Hellenic Speleological Society was

informed about its existence only in 1975 after Alistrati community sent relevant documents. It

was only then that started its organized exploration. Its explored surface reaches 25.000 sq. m

and its stalagmites and stalactites are of unique beauty. The cave is of great touristic interest

and gathers approximately 120,000 visitors annually.

7

Just 50 km from Serres lies

the medieval, byzantine Ther-

mal Baths of Agistro dating

back to the year 950. During the Turk-

ish rule, the local Ruler and his Harem

used it as a Hamam. Nowadays, it is a

modern SPA center with experienced

staff and up-to-date facilities. The nat-

ural thermal springs of Agistro have a

temperature of 40,5C. It operates 24/7, while several modern accommo-

dation opportunities are available in

the area surrounding the thermal

springs.

8

Next to the newly uncovered archaeological site of Amphipolis, the

Museum of Amphipolis has important exhibits such as gold jewellery

from the areaof Amphipolis, a figurine of a dancer performing the

Peirihios Dance, three statues- of Orestes and Electra (2nd cent. bc), a female

figure (4th cent. bc), and Aphrodite and Eros (2nd cent. bc) - a bust of the

local deity Attis (1st cent. bc), a full-length siren tearing her hair and beating

her breast, a silver reliquary with the gold olive wreath that was found inside

it, and a gold wreath from a male burial. At the entrance to the museum, visi-

tors may also view eighteenth-century historians correspondence about an-

cient Amphipolis, together with photographs of the unearthing of the Lion of

Amphipolis in 1913 and its restoration.

9

Champagne, Love & Olgas smile Kefalonia TUI makes the Captains Corelli Mandolin Island into a charming place for weddings

Congratulations, youre engaged! Now

the Champagnes been popped and

youve shown your ring to the world and

his wife, twice, its time to plan the details

of your big day. And thats where Thom-

son Weddings comes in. Its our job to

turn your once upon a time into real

time.

Using these words, TUI UK is calling the

potential customers to get married and

the Greek Destinations can be proven to

be an excellent choice for this occasion.

TUI Hellas is always there to make all the

local necessary arrangements in order to

turn this day into an unforgettable experi-

ence! Today we are going to present you

a story of success from the beautiful Ioni-

an island of Kefalonia, where we have

managed to achieve really high satisfac-

tion scores! What is our secret behind

this? Well it has a name and we are going

to bring it up to the surface its called

the Fantastic Olga - Olga Fambiatou!

She is our local weddings coordinator and

even though this was her first time in this

role, she has managed to show the best of

performance! Not only is she charming

and full of energy, but she greatly manag-

es to become part of the family with the

customer. Her key for success is her open,

warm and inspiring character and the fact

that she is always in a mood to provide

assistance with high quality service while

enjoying every single moment of her

work. You will be amazed watching her

making spontaneous, yet lovely speeches

during the after ceremony feast, motivat-

ing people to dance, meeting the whole

family and becoming their best friend,

hugging them and feeling as a family

member, laughing, crying, showing pure

emotions, dancing in Zorba rhythm. Olga

is close to the clients from the very first

moment they arrive in the airport, till the

time they catch the flight back home. She

simply does everything in order to offer a

wonderful wedding day to our guests.

We have no words to thank her and we

wish her by heart to continue with the

same passion and professionalism making

more couples smile.

Good morning Olga, We just wanted to thank you from the bottom of our

heart for all you have done in making our wedding such a fantastic day!

Gareth & Chloe

The wedding was perfect from start to finish. We could not imagine having

our wedding organized by anyone else, as we said before we think you are

amazing. The guests had such a fantastic time, they cannot stop talking

about it. - Karen & Chris

I just wanted to send you an email to thank you for all your hard work in

making our wedding day so perfect. Roy and I couldn't ask for a better

wedding co-ordinator, you were fantastic. - Roy & Liz

pa10ge

A further 21 Greek beaches and

one marina have been award-

ed Blue Flags for 2014. With 408

beaches and 10 marinas now fly-

ing Blue Flag, Greece nudges past

Turkey to rank second among 51

countries worldwide, behind

Spain.

This year, the Blue Flag Interna-

tional Jury awarded a total of

3,372 beaches and 650 marinas

worldwide. Spain ranked 1st with

571 Blue Flag beaches, Turkey

was listed 3rd with 387 beaches,

France was in the 4th place with

379 Blue Flag labels and Portugal

was 5th with 298 beaches. Cyprus

has 57 Blue Flag beaches.

The Greek National Tourism Or-

ganization has set a goal to

achieve a substantial increase of

Blue Flag beaches all over Greece

in the coming years, according to

the countrys potential of the

spectacular islands and extensive

coastline. Of course, that goal

includes maintaining the high

quality of the offered services,

including safety and facilities for

visitors with disabilities, as well as

the demanding standards of the

Blue Flag program in Greece.

The Blue Flag label is an interna-

tional symbol of quality and is one

of the most well-known environ-

mental symbols worldwide. It has

been awarded since 1987

to beaches and marinas meeting

the strict requirements of the

program. In order to receive a

Blue Flag label, a beach doesnt

only have to have an excellent

quality of bathing water, it must

also comply with further 32 crite-

ria concerning cleanliness, envi-

ronmental management environ-

mental education and information,

visitor safety and services, as well

as protection of nature.

Clean Beaches, clear water, happy people

Greece ranked second in the world in terms of sea & beach quality.

Barb

ati

Bea

ch, C

orf

u

Ralf Becker, Service Manager World of TUI Corfu. The number of Greek beaches is huge and one is more beautiful

than the other. In Corfu there are well-known beaches while others are hidden and accessible only by boat. This year,

30 beaches in Corfu were given special recognition with the award of the Blue Flag. I am convinced that the 9 beaches

that lost the Blue Flag this year will be awarded again in the coming years. The quality of the beaches is an important

precondition for the continued growth of tourism. TUI is a big supporter of environmental protection in the destina-

tions and motivates business partners, the local population as well as our colleagues to stand up for the environment in

the destinations.

The moon is not a God, it is a rock.

And his light comes from the sun.

Archimedes

3rd century BC (2.300 years ago)

Archimedes of Syracuse (Sicily), was

an ancient Greek Mathematician,

Physicist, Engineer and Astronomer.

He is considered as one of the great-

est scientists of ancient times and

one of the greatest Mathematicians

of all times. Archimedes anticipated

modern analysis by applying con-

cepts and method of exhaustion to

derive and rigorously prove geomet-

rical theorems, including the area of

a circle, the surface area, the vol-

ume of a sphere. Other mathemati-

cal achievements include deriving an

accurate approximation of pi (),

d e f in ing and inve s t i g a t ing

the spiral bearing his name, and

creating exponentiation for express-

ing very large numbers. He was also

one of the first to apply mathemat-

ics to physical phenomena, found-

ing hydrostatics and statics, includ-

ing an explanation of the principle

of the lever (Give me a firm place

to stand on, and I will move the

earth). We know today about the

circumstances of his death from the

manuscripts of the Roman historian

Valerius Maximus (20 BC; Facta et

dicta memorabilia, Book VII, 7).

According to it, Archimedes died

during the siege of his hometown by

the Romans, despite the Roman

Commander had ordered to protect

the life of the famous scientist. Va-

lerius writes: Pleased with the

mans exceptional skills, he gave out

that his life was to be spared, putting

almost as much glory in saving Ar-

chimedes as in crushing Syracuse.

But as Archimedes was drawing

diagrams with mind and eyes fixed

on the ground, a soldier who had

broken into the house in quest of

loot