Tasso Pappas
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A native of Athens, Greece and resident of Belgium since 1970, Tasso Pappas has accumulated over 30 years international experience in tourism and the meetings, incentive and convention business, worldwide.
Industry Education:
Tasso is a graduate from the High Commercial School of Athens, and the IATA Professional training program on ticketing & tariffication. Further, he has attended 8 SITE universities and numerous SITE, MPI & industry seminars. Tasso is one of the few Certified Incentive Travel Executive (CITE) in the world and speaks and writes Greek, English and French. Tasso regularly delivers seminars related to the Incentives and Conferences Industry.
Industry Positions:
Tasso has acquired worldwide experiences by travelling in over 60 countries, and holding management positions in Hellenic Tours & Orient Express Athens (Greece) Maupintour (USA), Transcontinental-Generalcar (Belgium), and Belgium International Events. In 1993, he created CIB PERFORMANCE Belgium where he remained a partner and director until 2003. Under his management CIB Performance became an International leader in the market for the handling of quality incentive and conference events. As of January 2005, Tasso shares his time between Brussels and Athens; and works as an independent consultant and speaker for the MICE industry.
Industry Leadership:
Tasso Pappas (CITE) has served the MICE industry in the following international positions:
- Founder member of ABITO (Association of Belgian Incoming Operators) served as President for 5 years.
- 6 years as member of the executive committee of WATA (World Association of Travel Agents).
- 4 years as president of the SITE Benelux chapter.
- 2 years as chairman of SITE's (Society of Incentive & Travel Executives) Ethics Committee.
- 6 years in the Board of Directors of SITE Intl. holding Executive positions like VP Marketing, VP membership and President Elect.
- In 2000 he become the President of SITE Intl.
- 2000 to 2005 he was member of the General Assembly of Brussels Congress, the convention bureau of the city of Brussels..
- 2002 Member of the Organizing Committee of MPI/PEC 2002 in Brussels.
- 2006 Founder and President of SITE Greek Chapter.
Industry Recognitions:
- In 1995 Tasso received the EIBTM/IT&ME “European Incentive Personality Award”.
- In 1996, Tasso became the third-ever European to obtain the prestigious CITE designation (Certified Incentive Travel Executive), the highest designation in the incentive industry.
For his designation he wrote the thesis “To be or not to be a DMC” which today has become a successful SITE educational book and seminar.
Hobbies/Personal Interests:
Computer, painting, golfing, cooking, gardening, and reading of historic books