The effort to promote Hiking tourism in Rhodes has begun

For the first time, the Municipality of Rhodes and the Directorate of Tourism, for the first time, started an organized effort to promote walking tourism on the island, something that is included in the annual program of tourism experience and promotion of the Municipality of Rhodes for 2021 (tourism business plan) with the most modern name “experiences” (s.s. experiences).

In the age of Covid, where many aspects of our lives are being revised and adapted, the tourism product could not remain the same but it is also mutating and adapting to the new era. 

In fact, this effort for the promotion of walking tourism in Rhodes, the so-called “trekking”, which in this island of course has great potential, has already been officially started by the Municipality and the responsible Deputy Mayor of Tourism Mr. Costas Taraslias, with the autopsies carried out by himself with the competent service agents in various paths. 

In the first phase, they are located outside the city and are marked and organized. Already, a first study has been made for paths in Kritinia, while tomorrow, Monday, the Deputy Mayor together with the officials of the Municipality will carry out an autopsy on the paths of Salakos and Profitis Ilias.

It is characteristic that now the terminology that we used all the previous years is changing. That is, now, in the business plan of the Municipality for tourism there is no talk of “alternative forms” but of “experiences” since what it wants to offer to our potential visitors is really a special experience on the island and in this case to those who love to explore and hike in the places they visit.

In addition to marking and organizing the trails, the next stage is their promotion. The Municipality, therefore, will join the publication of a map with them in order to include the routes in websites and databases that exist for the trails, thus attracting the interest of our potential visitors who are fans of this tourism, which is also called “nature-loving” . 

At the same time, the possibility for this type of tourism on the island will be shown with specialized videos.

Besides, this part will be included in the renewed site of the Municipality for the promotion of our tourist product, in collaboration with the Directorate of Informatics, with the aim of a complete online tourist guide.

In order to organize this path, however, the Tourism Directorate also cooperates with the Technical Services Directorate of the Municipality (the competent Department of Road Construction), with travel agents interested in such routes, with Associations, etc.

For some time now, they have started to control one by one these routes on the island and are already organizing the first 8 which meet the specifications, ie passability but also have natural and cultural interest. 

This process, in fact, will continue step by step every week, according to Mr. Taraslias who mentions as an example of such a route Crete, where of course there is natural beauty in the area but there is also the Castle.

Finally, these paths that are suitable for walking tourism are estimated at 40 throughout the island while in the second stage the goal of the Directorate of Tourism is to highlight the cycling routes.