Seeking to reinforce its international reputation as a scuba diving destination, Alonnisos has launched a unique and ambitious campaign dubbed “I Love You Deeply”, offering visitors the opportunity to not just get married on the island, but under its waters, as of this coming summer.
Alonnisos, a Sporades island northeast of the island Euboea, has long been an attraction for visitors acquainted with the beauty offered by the Aegean Sea’s northern region. Alonnisos has been the focus of international attention courtesy of its National Marine Park, founded in 1992, as well as its development of an ancient shipwreck at the islet Peristera as an underwater museum.
The latter initiative ended up generating interest for wedding ceremonies on the island’s beaches as well as on yachts, while Alonnisos’ municipal authorities, in its effort to boost the island’s scuba diving tourism, showed even greater endeavour by launching a campaign dubbed “I Love You Deeply”, aiming to promote the idea of underwater civil wedding ceremonies, eight metres deep.
Besides its apt wordplay, the campaign’s English-language title also declares an intent for openness, targeting couples from all over the world, regardless of religion.
All organisational matters and infrastructure needed to stage underwater wedding ceremonies are ready, the island’s mayor, Mr. Petros Vafinis, has informed, adding that interested parties can now lodge applications. The procedure is simple, as long as necessary licenses have been obtained.
A certain number of guests will be able to attend these underwater civil wedding ceremonies, though the precise limit still needs to be specified and set.
Of course, couples without scuba diving experience will need to take diving lessons in order to proceed with their underwater wedding ceremonies, adding to the wedding expenses. However, as part of the launch, couples will be offered free diving lessons in 2022, at least, supported by the island’s diving centres.
In comments to SKAI radio, Mr. Vafinis, the island’s mayor, informed that the Alonnisos town hall has already received a first underwater wedding application, from a couple in Athens, which has booked its ceremony date for late in August.
The mayor also highlighted that the island has even more ambitious plans for Alonnisos’ underwater tourism as, besides the Peristera shipwreck, a further seven shipwrecks exist in the island’s surrounding waters. Of these, four may soon be made accessible to scuba divers, possibly this coming summer, following approval by Greece’s Central Archaeological Council.
If this strategy goes according to plan, Alonnisos is expected to gain renewed impetus as an international tourism attraction through the development of an underwater archaeological park, the world’s first of its kind, offering visits to shipwrecks. The establishment of such a project would become a talking point, internationally, bolstering the tourism reputation of the island and the Sporades archipelago as a whole.
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