Last month in Rethymno Grecotel Creta Palace hosted the “World Olive Day: Expanding Olive Oil Tourism in Crete,” to bring more olive lovers and businesses to the island.
With the objective of promoting olive tourism as the focus, the event was held October 24th with the help of SEDIK, and in cooperation with the Region of Crete, the Municipalities of Rethymno and Heraklion, and the
Nikos Daskalantonakis Group
This year’s Rethymno segment was the 2nd, following a Chania event which also coincided with World Olive Day 2018. Sanctioned by the International Olive Oil Council – the world’s largest olive oil organization, local stakeholders sought to exploit Crete’s abundant olive attractions like museums, monuments, ancient trees like the Monumental olive tree, and olive growing facilities from Chania prefecture to Lassithi.
Tour guides. tourist information agents, hotels, agrotourism entities, oil producers and even local archeologists took part. Experts presented a wealth of information about olive oil in archaeology, history, the diet, hotels, museums, factories, farms, tastings, and seminars, plus other activities and sites to visit, including monumental olive trees.
At the Olive Day event five Cretan companies for their efforts to interest tourists in olive oil and olive oil tourism by providing printed, online, or spoken information, offering questionnaires, using olive oil in restaurants, displaying branded olive oils, and/or organizing informative events or visits to relevant sites. Included were Grecotel Creta Palace Luxury Resort in Missiria, Aquila Rithymna Beach Hotel, Anemos Luxury Grand Resort Hotel in Georgioupoli, Terra Creta Olive Oil Company, and Candia Park Village Hotel in Agios Nikolaos.
From the beginning of November until January on Crete is the time of “Vendema,” or the harvesting of the fruits, especially the collecting of the olives.
World Olive Day takes place this year on November 24th with a ceremony attended by the delegations of the member countries under its call to “Choose olives to protect our planet and our health!”
