Special hiking activities in the Rhodope Mountains

As part of the effort to create a hiking network, with the organization and recording of hiking routes that take place “In the footsteps of the Ancient Egnatia Road” and the development of an application capable of being utilized by both mountain guides and individual tourists, the first thematic working meeting was held today in the Rhodope Mountain Region. Representatives from Municipalities, forestry departments, organizations, mountaineering, tourist and nature clubs, hoteliers and tour operators participated in this first approach with the aim of informing them about the present action and encouraging them to propose routes in accordance with the design data.
The aim of the meeting was to try to synthesize the information and what is necessary to collect in order to be useful in the direction of the development of hiking tourism in our region. The hiking routes of the AMTH Region include routes from the Prefectural Government of Drama to the Prefectural Government of Alexandroupoli, including the islands of Thassos and Samothrace, including the Steps of Apostle Paul, the Wine Routes, Pangaeo, Rodopi, Nestos, Evros, Samothrace, Thassos, while Coastal routes will be explored and will constitute axes of reference with the aim of synthesizing all of these.
In essence, it is about recording a route of more than four hundred kilometers that extends from Ferres to Ofrynion in the footsteps of the Ancient Egnatia. It is also a hiking route to strengthen this type of tourism in the PAMT, which seems to be gaining ground in recent times. The route will be available via an Android application, which operates on smartphones and tablets, and will be a digital hiking and tour guide as it will also record all the routes recorded by the various bodies (e.g. mountain trails, cycling) with the aim of ensuring the safety of each walker and guiding them to safe points. In addition, it will present information about the tourist or archaeological sites nearby, which can be visited by the hiker.
The action plan, as described, is a plan for the development of hiking tourism on the axis of the Ancient Egnatia Road with the ultimate goal of developing tourism throughout the year. In this effort, the Rhodope Prefectural Government actively participates, seeking to promote the Prefecture of Rhodope and to establish that our region is both an entry and a passage point for the wider region, an element that must play a decisive factor in the development of the local economy and in the establishment of every form of alternative and non-tourism as a pillar of local economic and social development.

the Deputy Governor of Rhodope
Tsalikidis Nikolaos