ABTA´s Convention Venue from Athens to Marbella

The Association of British Travel Agents has announced that its 2006 ABTA Travel Convention will now be held in Marbella, Spain from November 27 to 29. The event had been planned to take place in Athens from November 23 to 25.

ABTA President Justin Fleming commented, “We had planned to hold our Convention in Athens this year but due to a number of local changes in the last few months we feel it would be better to do this in another year. I am delighted that we have secured the convention facilities in Marbella where we held our very successful 1998 Convention.”

On the other hand the president of HATTA Giannis Evagelou commented, “It is all about change in tactics. The newly appointed board of ABTA contributed also to this unpleasant situation.”

“The stop of operations of Athens Convention & Visitors Bureau didn´t affect the agreement with ABTA as all its operations passed over to HATTA till it entered to Municipality of Athens,” stressed Mr. Evagelou.

The Greek Ministry of Tourism Development in its announcement mentioned that the commitments that had been given to ABTA for the good operation of the convention were valid and they are still valid. These commitments had been announced to ABTA.

The event will now commence on November 27 with sports and networking activities and the Welcome Party. Business Sessions will run through November 28 and 29, coming to a close with a spectacular Farewell Party on Wednesday evening.

ABTA has secured an excellent lineup of key speakers, and these will be announced early next week.