The residents of the “global village” called Earth are travelling more and more often from one place to another, from the big cities to the small villages, for commercial or business purposes but also for leisure and exploring and for cultural and religious reasons, with Greece being one of the most popular travel destinations in the world.
Tourism, however, isn’t a phenomenon of the modern world. It’s remarkable that people have been moving for the same reasons since ancient times. In ancient Greece, the land where the institution of hospitality (philoxenia) was established, with foreigners being considered holy and honored figures protected by Zeus Xenios, people were moving for trade, to participate or view athletic or dramatic games or religious festivals.
Much later, during the 19th century, Greece attracted European travellers as a craddle of history and civilization. After the establishment of the New Hellenic State, Greece continued to attract European antiquaries eager to discover the country’s glorious ancient past.
The foundation of Greek National Tourist Organization (GNTO) by Eleftherios Venizelos, in 1929, was a breakthrough in the history of Greek tourism. The aim was to make Greece the ideal travel destination for the foreigners.
In the same year, the first advertising poster was created – the ultimate advertising tool of the time. It is a black and white photograph by Elli Souyoutzoglou-Seraidaris (Nelly's) depicting the Parthenon from the Propylaea. What else could be chosen for the first official introduction of Greece to the international audience except for the emblematic landmark photographed by an internationally recognized artist, with the game of shadows transfusing an expressionistic vibe to the depiction.
GNTO posters reflect the aesthetic and artistic tendencies, the political and social conditions and the touristic orientation of the country. Monuments and archaeological sites depicted in the organization's first posters declare the intention to highlight the cultural element as a lure. Later, the illustrations with the sun-sea dipole are introduced, indicating the corresponding turn of the tourist "machine". The first advertising posters orientate the visitor, apart from the archaeological, to therapeutic tourism, by promoting places such as Edipsos and Loutraki (in mimicry of the famous European resorts) while Athens, Rhodes and Corfu were among the first places shown abroad. Among the posters, there are those depicting works of religious art, a memoir of the byzantine past and a connection with the Christian present of the country. Furthermore, there are a lot of photographs capturing the Greek landscape. The photographic depictions of the resorts of upcountry and insular Greece, especially those of sunny Aegean, are directly related with the presentation of the country in the frames of mass tourism, by promoting the picturesque characteristics of the Greek landscape and a carefree everyday life, elements harmonized with the aims of the tourism industry.
GNTO posters, during the 1940’s and 1950’s, are paintings made by famous artists which reflect the special style of their creators. The oldest poster of the present Exhibition (1938) was created by Michail Papageorgiou (Doris) and depicts Loutraki, inviting the visitor to the “miraculous spring”. The islander woman holding a basket with cherries by Mimis Vitsoris (1939), a jetty at a Greek island by Periclis Vyzantios (1948), the Palace of Knossos by Eleni Peraki-Theocharis (1949), Mykonos by Kostas Linakis (1949), Andros by Georgios Moschos (1949), the Lion Gate of Mycenae by Giannis Tsarouchis (1952), the “scenographic” depiction of Kastella by Georgios Vakirtzis (1955) guide us in Greece. Posters are also made by foreign artists such as Paul Bret, Charland Negus and others.
In the beginning of the 1970s, famous graphic designers undertook the creation of touristic posters. Vivid colors, strong contradictions, simple lines and “clean” forms compose abstractive depictions of the Greek landscape, with a modern aesthetic, following the principals of modernism. The posters “Architectural Composition” and “Greece” by Freddie Carabott, “Mosaic” by Michalis Katzourakis and “Mystras” in red by Michalis Katzourakis and Michalis Diamantis, all created in 1963, reflect the innovative, for the time, artistic approach and the dynamic and smart exploitation of color in conjunction with the use of timeless symbols of Greece. The exceptional quality of the impressions which were carried out by several print-shops (Aspioti Elka, M. Pehlivanidis, A. Malikoutis/K. Kontogonis and others) create a kind of patina which runs all the posters of the organization.
Parallelly, photographers picked up the torch, with multiple depictions of the Greek summer: enchanting beaches and swimmers enjoying the landscape. Photo credits are attributed to famous Greek photographers such as Spyros Meletzis, Dimitris Charisiadis, Νikolaos Tompazis, Nikolaos Stournaras, Νikos Mavrogenis and others. From the 1980’s, posters are exclusively colored photographs where the use of colors is symbolic, with white and blue dominating. In 2019 the Greek Tourist Organization turns to advertising spots and the last poster is printed.
GNTO posters, created as an advertising tool to approach, mainly foreign, visitors, manage to reflect the visual tendencies of their time, even creating them, by introducing, for example, the graphic design to the Greek audience. The documents of the Thematic Exhibition, created between 1939 and 2009, weave a travel story which narrates the “myth” of Greece through historic, cultural and religious landmarks, the beauties of nature and scenes of everyday life. Furthermore, the retrospection in GNTO posters from the 1940’s till 21st century, reflects the emergence of tourism industry as a basic pylon of Greek economy with a catalytic effect in the physiognomy of the country both in environmental and social level, and puts the spotlight on the timely request of shaping a new, human and environmentally friendly tourism.
The exhibition contains items from the following institutions:
