ENRICO N. B. AIDAN Chairman and Managing Director of Casino Rodos

United World: My first question concerns the opening of this new Casino. What were the efforts made to open this new casino and what does it represent?

Mr. Aidan: This building is a historical building built by the Italian occupiers in Rhodes in 1912. They decided to use an architectural design that is reminiscent of the Ottoman Empire, which used to be present here in the past. When the Italians left, the Germans and fascism came and with it came a specific architectural design which you can see on several other buildings such as the Town Hall and the Theatre. This building underwent a face lift where the Ottoman design features were scrapped and replaced by a more boxy design. The building was also enlarged at that time.

In 1948 the ceasefire between Israel and the Arab nations was signed here. Winston Churchill also came here to sign the return of the Dodecanese to Greece. This place was well known in this part of the world and was called the 'pearl of the Mediterranean'. Somehow, after all that, and when all imperial nations had left Greece, this building became too expensive to keep and it was closed down. The Mayor of Rhodes who has been in office for around ten years was eager to reopen the building but did not know where to

look for an investor. So he decided to privatize the already existing casino (which was housed in a hotel at the time) and tendered the new casino license with the clause that whichever company decided to run it would have to renovate this historical building. Our company bid but lost the tender. Playboy casino got the tender and started restoring the building but after three years they stopped. When the Mayor realized that Playboy were not going to do finish what they had started, he came to us (Queen Foreign Affair) and proposed us to take over. There was also a small problem between the image of Rhodes and Playboy Casinos for what it is worth.

Rhodes used to receive the "Crème de la Crème" of Europe. The "Crème de la Crème" do not like going to cheap places. But when you have 62,000 rooms and 120,000 beds what can you do? Tourism here became cheaper and cheaper which lead to a lower quality of visitors. In the end there was a loss. The Mayor has been making sound efforts, and we are helping him as much as we can to improve the image of the island. There is nothing wrong with Rhodes. It is a wonderful place with wonderful people, fantastic traditional food and an unbelievable number of beaches. Palma de Majorca used to be like that 20 years ago. Today Palma is totally over-logged. Rhodes is still virgin compared to Majorca. Here you have beaches, mountains, meadows, flowers, forests, the butterfly valley, all in all unbelievable places.

United World: You have just mentioned that the mayor and yourself have the will to boost the quality of the visitors to Rhodes. It is well known that U.S. visitors spend more money than the average European tourists. How important is the US market to you and do you see potential with regards to Rhodes?

Mr. Aidan: Let me tell you one thing. With the exception of the Japanese, the US is the number one market in the world for tourism. It is very sad that Greece is loosing this market. If Americans came to this country, it would be an extravagance for them. And Rhodes could pull itself back into the realms of top tourist destinations. I was in Israel in 1973 and because of the war the Americans pulled themselves out of Israel. It was a disaster for Israel which was being kept alive by these visitors. Or take France for example: Paris receives 15 million visitors per annum and 35% of them come from the US.

United World: Do you have any US tourists right now except for the ones coming from the cruise liners?

Mr. Aidan: Only some crazy ones who come off the boat and want to place a bet in the roulette table before they go. The rest of the tourists off the boats visit the old town, get excited, but then they have to go.

United World: Are you making any marketing efforts in order to attract these US visitors?

Mr. Aidan: We are advertising ourselves in the PREMIUM magazine which is being published in the US and we are using internet web sites.

United World: So you have an image you would like to transmit?

Mr. Aidan: We definitely have an image we would like to transmit. We have some contacts in the US but it is very difficult to convince the US opinion.

United World: When you approach the American market what is the image that you are selling?

Mr. Aidan: What is a casino? It is the outlet of an institution. If you go to Vegas you get a luxurious hotel, you get massive shows, you get so many services, in the end betting is just another one of the activities offered to you. If you are a person who wants to try your luck, you try your luck; if you are a sick gambler, you are going to be there all day. Out of 1,000 players who will visit the casino in any given day, not all of them are going to be in the casino together. As a matter of fact, the casino profits do not come from gaming. It is a transfer of money between the tables. We are just running the operation.

United World: In order to run this operation properly you need shows, events, festivals… Does Rhodes today offer all these elements?

Mr. Aidan: You have just arrived on the last day of a ten-day Gastronomic and Culinary festival. The people of Rhodes loved it since the food was fantastic. Tonight will be last night and I have brought 7 chefs from 7 different countries - you have not experienced that before.

I have organized 10 concerts to be held here between June and September - two of those will be dinner concerts. Very big names from the Greek scene will participate. The idea is that this summer, we are going to concentrate on the Athenians who are planning to flee Athens during the congestion period of the Games.

United World: Are you also expecting other visitors coming via Athens?

Mr. Aidan: Yes, although we reckon the majority of the visitors will be Athenians. God forbid a terrorist act happens during the Games. That could kill the sector altogether.

United World: You mentioned in the introduction that you are also investing back on the island, so could you explain to us exactly how you do that?

Mr. Aidan: There are three projects we are involved in. There is a Marina project which is going on for about 24 years. No previous Mayor had been successful in completing it. The current Mayor is determined to push the project forward. We are helping the Municipality with that and we are also participating in the creation of parking and garage facilities and in the development of a power station.

United World: I understand you are very well involved with the public sector in order to bring this island forward.

Mr. Aidan: The companies are the ones who are involved. I am the conductor of the orchestra.

United World: What is your biggest challenge as the manager of this Hotel and Casino?

Mr. Aidan: When I show you the rooms upstairs you will understand my ambitions. I want to bring the highest quality to this island. The idea behind this hotel (which is rather small with just 32 suites) is to provide to the clients an experience rarely found in any parts of the world today. Each room has a personal butler.

United World: So you are taking care of the big international customers who want to come over here for a few days, for a weekend, and get away from it all?

Mr. Aidan: We do that and we also do more than what the client expect. The idea behind this hotel is to attract top international people and offer them an unbelievable experience. Our rooms upstairs are unbelievable and the attention to detail is extreme. We have devised an unbelievable secret lighting system for our rooms.

United World: I have one last question for you: the Olympic Games are coming soon; are you going to make any moves in order to highlight your Casino in that respect?

Mr. Aidan: It is difficult for me to believe that people are going to leave Athens in order to fly to Rhodes or anywhere else. Instead, they are going to be staying outside Athens and book the events they would like to see in the capital. However we have waged a massive campaign in the last 12 months with regards to the Games. Here, I should note that Greece mainland has a population of 8 million people and the fact that Greece is hosting the Games is a massive achievement and the international media - especially from the big countries such as France - should have been less aggressive and negative.

United World: What would be your message to our readers?

Mr. Aidan: If they do not come, they are going to miss an experience that exists only here. Greece has retained a lot of its values and culture and this will amaze people, and especially the Americans.