Our Team

Thalia Cocconi

Thalia Cocconi, is the Operations Director and partner of ETC. She is your expert on Greece and your travel partner eager in creating an exciting itinerary for your travel plans in Greece, Italy or Turkey. She is happy to create the best suitable customized itinerary with great enthusiasm and energy. She is the youngest of the Cocconis, exposed to tourism from her childhood, and has travelled extensively in Greece, Turkey and Italy among other countries of Europe.

She enjoys learning languages, and except for her native Greek and English, she speaks Italian, French, German, and Swedish. She holds a Master’s degree in Hotel, Restaurant and Travel Administration from the University of Massachusetts and has taught undergraduate courses in Hospitality in Athens. She also holds a BA in Communications from Fairfield University, spent a full semester in Strasbourg, worked in the hospitality industry in Paris and Boston, and attended language courses in various European countries. Her travel and hospitality industry experience is extensive, working in Paris for Euro Disney, a 5 star hotel in Boston, the as well as for two of the largest US travel companies as a member of the management team. Thalia obviously loves to travel and explore new places and always wants to discover this special hidden place, hotel, winery, restaurant that is a true gem! Thalia enjoys to learn new things, read, bake, dance and spend time with her husband, daughter and their puppy, Mocha! Thalia splits her time between Greece and Boston so you will meet her in person while in Greece or Italy.

Dimitri Cocconi

Dimitri Cocconi, is the founder and partner of Educational Tours and Cruises with more than 45 years of experience in educational travel to Greece, Italy and Turkey. A true entrepreneur and visionary, he was the first to pioneer the 5 day Do-As-You-Like Tour of Greece (the most popular tour of Greece among travel agencies for years!) more than 50 years ago, with his previous travel company, Viking Yacht Cruises. He specialized in student travel then, and was the first agency in Greece to specialize on study tours (air and land arrangements) for students from Scandinavia, with more than 250,000 satisfiedclients (as Arthur Frommer will attest and recommend on his book about Greece).

He was well known not only for his student, academic tours and high quality of overall service, but he was also as one of the few travel agencies in Greece that initiated private yacht cruises on the Greek isles in the 1980s with great success. He knows Greece and the Greek Islands like the back of his hand and has made excellent contacts with hotels, museums, and institutions as the result of his long involvement in the travel business. Fluent in English, Greek, Swedish and German , with a knowledge of French and Spanish, his hobbies include reading, philosophy, yoga and pilates, history, politics - and of course traveling. Besides being a well-rounded, intellectual and warm hearted individual, he is a father of two and proud grand-father of three who he still loves to travel and explore Greece, Italy, Spain and new places.

Maria Kotzia

Maria, our newest addition to ETC, brings a lot of energy and enthusiasm to our team. She assists in all aspects of operations, from hotel bookings, to itinerary and budget planning, not to mention that she escorts our groups on location in Greece with a big smile and positive spirit. A native of Greece, she studied English and American Language and Literature in the University of Athens. After teaching English as a Foreign Language in private schools and language institutes for 30 years, she moved to Boston in 2018 where she became a volunteer with English For New Bostonians and taught English to immigrants for almost a year before she joined our team. Maria likes to travel and to explore new places.

She also enjoys foreign languages and has a good grasp of German. She is married, has two children and having been a competitive athlete in her younger years, she loves lap swimming, working out and dancing Zumba.

When she wishes to unwind, reading as well as a glass of Greek wine in the company of good friends are her favorite choices.