NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Up Greek Tourism, a private initiative promoting Greece as a touristic destination, today announced the successful completion of its first milestone, to place a giant billboard in New York’s Times Square, inviting Americans to visit Greece. The electronic billboard, which will be on display for 30 days, will remind the public of the natural beauty of the Greek land.
In just 20 days, Up Greek Tourism surpassed its goal of $15,000 by raising over $20,000 from private individuals to fund a billboard advisement in New York City. About 50 percent of the supporters were located outside Greece, including Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, France Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Qatar, Russia Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, U.A.E, U.K. and U.S.A.
The project was managed by Greeks around the world on a voluntary basis, with no budget or hired professionals. Using LoudSauce as its platform, the campaign was mainly promoted via social media networks, such as Facebook and Twitter. The animated advertisement was developed by Charis Tsevis, an award-winning visual designer.
“While our government is trying to deal with the economic crisis, we, as individuals, should not wait. We need to take matters into our own hands to help change the future of our country,” said Onic Palandjian, one of the founders of this initiative. “Our team is made of people with day jobs, working on this project in their spare time. We chose tourism, because it is the ‘heavy industry’ in Greece,” added Yorgos Kleivokiotis, co-founder.
Greece attracts close to 15 million tourists a year,(1) almost four million more than its total population.(2) Tourism accounts for almost 18 percent of Greece’s GDP and employs roughly a fifth of the country's four million workforce. (3)
To access different applications of the advertisement, you can go to: http://www.upgreektourism.gr/creativefiles.
About Up Greek Tourism
Founded by Yorgos Kleivokiotis, Onic
Palandjian and Stathis Haikalis, the 20-member UP Greek Tourism
team aims to promote Greek tourism through traditional and social media
as well as word-of-mouth. You can find more information about the
project at http://www.upgreektourism.gr.
(1) "2011 Highlights." UNWTO World Tourism Highlights (UNWTO). June 2011.
(2) “Total Population." Eurostat. 1 January 2010.
(3) Greek National Tourism Organization.
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