Joint promotion of Med Diet and local “authentic” gastronomy in tourism, by Alpine Center and Authentic Greece Ltd.

Alpine Center, the prestigious Swiss Business School for Hotel and Tourism Management, Switzerland and Authentic Greece Ltd, the innovative Network of Local Producers and Gastronomy Hotels in Greece, join forces to promote Greek gastronomy, authentic products and Mediterranean Diet principles within the tourism sector – in Greece and beyond.

 

Alpine Center, the Swiss Business School for Hotel and Tourism Management, Switzerland, is the pioneering leader of international hospitality and tourism management education. With a diverse student body and faculty representing over 45 nationalities, Alpine has been preparing students for management and leadership positions in the service economy for over 27 years. Alpine Center offers a rich portfolio of courses preparing students for careers in all segments of the industry; it offers programmes of study in various countries.

 

Authentic Greece Ltd, is the innovative food company that brings together the local producers with the hospitality sector, offering an opportunity for cooperation between them. Started in Peloponnese, Authentic Ltd offers a range of authentic delicacies from selected artisanal-food makers, who use recipes rooted deep in the history of Greek rural life. Furthermore, Authentic Ltd develops a Network of associated hotels and restaurants, that share the same values for "authentic", genuine Greek-Mediterranean food; there authentic products can be tasted at their local place of produce, either on their own or, even more appetizing, cooked as part of a delicious local specialty.

 

Now, Alpine Center and Authentic Greece Ltd join forces in order to promote local Mediterranean Cuisine in the hospitality sector in an integrated way, by helping hotels to incorporate authentic, healthy, nutritious, local produce and Greek regional cuisine with related recipes, within their operations and promotional activities.  

According to Sybil Hofmann, President of Alpine Center - Switzerland, “we are active in many countries, but we were most impressed by the innovative approach of Authentic Greece Ltd to combine local products with hospitality; through that, we show an opportunity to contribute seriously to SETE’s effort to make local gastronomy as one of the key reasons for tourists to choose Greece as their holiday destination”.

Dimitris Vassiliou, General Manager of Authentic Greece Ltd, added that “we were inspired by the Marketing Plan for Greek Gastronomy of SETE to build up our network of producers and hotels and asked Alpine Center to bring in its vast international experience, in order to help Greek hoteliers to adopt our local gastronomy solutions, products and recipes, in an organized manner”.

Both Alpine and Authentic Ltd recognize that it is important for the basic ingredients of a meal within a hotel, to be authentic but also standardized. Whenever possible, this authentic cuisine could also be combined with local recipes available at the place where the products are produced; at the same time, the authentic meals should being served in a way suitable to cover the needs and expectations of tourists.
 

In order to achieve these goals, Alpine and Authentic Ltd have agreed for a common set of activities: 

• Examine the perspectives of specific local authentic, standardized, produce for use in the hospitality sector and help Hotels to use them; the Mediterranean Food Center of Alpine and the network of Authentic Ltd producers will cooperate closely for this purpose.
• Authentic Ltd will support Alpine’s tutors and students to demonstrate the correlation of product origins with healthy nutrition and the potential for tourism (destination management, gastronomy / special forms of tourism, sustainability of Greek rural areas etc); information on geographical regions, local economy and customs will be provided - starting with Peloponnese.
• Alpine will contribute recipes demonstrating the use of the authentic gastronomy within culinary business, through the participation of the staff in the Mediterranean Food Center.
• Alpine  and Authentic will offer a variety of seminars and training, including trips, to chefs and F&B professionals to use authentic local Greek products and indicate their contribution to healthy nutrition and promotion  of various Greek regions. Events and competitions, addressed to professional associations, consumers and other target groups are also planned.
• Furthermore, Alpine Center and Authentic Ltd join forces to promote the local, authentic Greek gastronomy in tourism at the communication level. For this purpose, Authentic’s Newsletter and website, along with Alpine’s Alumni Network will be used to communicate the common activities, but also best practices, ie promoting, without cost, participating hotels and restaurants that are committed to this effort.

For more information about this topic, or to schedule an interview either with Sybil Hofmann or Dimitris Vassiliou, please contact Anastasia Konstantinidou at: +30-210-83 89 022, or e-mail:  Sybil at shofmann@swissalpinecenter.com /  Dimitris at dvas@apelop.gr