The talk first aired at RECON Remote 23 on Sunday, August 20, 2023.
Athens, Greece, is one of the world’s top escape room markets. We hear from an industry insider about what makes it so special.
The Athens Escape Room Scene is Special
This video is now available on the Room Escape Artist YouTube channel!
Speaker: Dimitris Varelas
Company: Paradox Project
Athens has a dense collection of high quality escape rooms with a distinct flavor. They tend to be long (2 hours+) and immersive, often including actors. Dimitris will share how the escape room scene evolved in this beautiful city and why enthusiasts should visit.
Why This Topic?
International travel has resumed in most of the post-pandemic world. Escape room players are once again crossing oceans in search of amazing games. Traveling to experience escape rooms from different regions is one of the best ways for owners to learn, evolve and improve their businesses. The RECON team decided to shine a spotlight on one of the top destinations.
Athens is routinely very well represented in TERPECA and other enthusiast best-of lists. We invited local industry expert Dimitris Varelas of Paradox Project to speak about the history and development of his company and the Athens escape room scene in general.
Dimitris shares stories and information about several important games and companies. His talk represents the Athens escape room owner community and gives insight into the nature of the customer base they serve.
Highlights From The Live Discord Chat
The chat participants were eager to start booking flights and making plans to visit Athens even as the talk was still going. The length and size of the games that Dimitris described were hot topics of discussion. RECON attendees were surprised to learn how experienced the average Athenian escape room player is, a far cry from what most US owners are seeing.
Chatters also discussed the popularity of 100% escape rates and the feasibility of getting around Athens using public transport. Many chat members made note of the number of popular horror games in the Athens market and just how scary they might be.
RECON Los Angeles 24
Join us in person for RECON’s next curated lineup of talks. We’ll be in Los Angeles, California, August 18th & 19th, 2024.
Tickets are on sale now!
