Santorini: promotional campaign with Transavia

A partnership with the airline Transavia, part of the Air France-KLM group, to promote Santorini in the French market was announced on Friday 21 August 2026 by the Municipality of Thira. The campaign’s central message, according to the Municipality, is “Beyond the Postcard” — a phrasing that points to seeking visitors beyond the instant, photographic image of the island. Transavia currently connects Santorini with three French cities, Paris, Lyon and Nantes, operating twelve return flights a week. The partnership, then, is not about creating a new air link but about promoting the destination through the channels of an airline that already flies to the island.

The campaign, as the Municipality of Thira describes it, runs across multiple channels. On the Paris Metro there is to be an advertising presence at eleven central stations on line 14, which connects the city with Orly airport, with 205 digital screens at a hub used by more than four million passengers every day. Alongside that, a newsletter is to be sent to ten million subscribers, a banner placed on the company’s website, which receives 2.4 million visitors a month, a push notification sent to 1.9 million users of the app, and a post published on Transavia France’s Facebook page. Those figures are as given in the Municipality’s announcement. This is a combination of outdoor advertising at a point of heavy passenger traffic and digital channels controlled by the airline itself, that is, direct communication with an audience that already travels.

The timing is not accidental. The campaign is placed within September 2026 and targets the French autumn school holidays, that is, a period outside the summer peak. For an island where tourist traffic is compressed into a few months, shifting demand towards the autumn bears directly on occupancy in accommodation, on businesses operating out of season and on the pressure placed on infrastructure during August. Over the same period, the authorities are stepping up checks on maritime tourist activity, as shown by the violations found on tourist boats. The choice of this particular audience, families who travel during the school holidays, suggests a focus on shorter trips outside the peak season.

In its announcement the Municipality of Thira thanks Emy Anagnostopoulou, director of the Greek National Tourism Organisation in France, as well as Giorgos Fytros, a permanent resident of Paris with roots in Santorini, for their contribution. The Municipality also says the partnership will be extended to other airlines, without specifying which or over what timeframe. No statement from a Transavia representative about the partnership has been made public, nor any figures on the cost or funding of the campaign. The result will really only be visible after September, in the traffic figures for the autumn period. The Municipality presents the initiative as the first step in a broader promotional strategy rather than as a one-off move.