Long queues at the Acropolis will soon be a thing of the past – ticket vending machines will be installed at the entrance

New ticket machines will be installed at the main entrance to the Acropolis of Athens to shorten queues and enhance the tourist experience of visiting the world-famous landmark.

The initiative was implemented by the Greek company Cardlink with the financial support of Visa, writes GreekReporter. Tourists will now be able to avoid long lines and pay for tickets using cards, phones or smartwatches, according to a report published on Thursday.

In addition to the Acropolis, ticket vending machines will be installed at the entrance to Ancient Olympia, Epidaurus and the Archaeological Museum of Delphi. Cardlink and Visa will gradually place ten machines in archaeological sites throughout Greece. According to the publication, the initiative is seen as “a flagship project that will improve the experience of thousands of tourists and help in the digitalization of the country’s most visited places.”

The installation of ticket machines at the most famous archaeological sites comes one year after Visa entered into an agreement with the Greek Ministry of Tourism to provide data on the dynamics of tourism spending and a few weeks after the successful implementation of the second project under the Visa for Athens initiative aimed at regenerating urban projects in Athens, says Nikos Petrakis, Visa Country Manager for Greece.

Tickets for the Acropolis of Athens and other places of interest, where ticket machines are installed, can also be purchased at regular ticket offices, through the B2B ticketeting system, as well as online at hhticket.gr. This is the official website of the Hellenic Organization for the Development of Cultural Resources (HOCRED), which provides tickets to 28 Greek archaeological sites and museums.

As a reminder, since September, Greece is introducing a number of new measures to combat the unprecedented overcrowding of the Acropolis – there will be a restriction on the number of visitors and allocated time slots for access to the 2500-year-old monument. Lina Mendoni, Minister of Culture of Greece, explained that the introduction of control is necessary in order to prevent the destruction of the monument, included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

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