Greek National Tourism Organization of the Netherlands organized a fam trip a few days ago focused on wine tourism for three tour operators and two bloggers in collaboration with the Region of Central Macedonia.
The trip was part of the promotion campaign of wine tourism and aimed at promoting Central Macedonia to the tourist market of Belgium and Holland, at enriching the destination with thematic and authentic traveling experiences such as wine tasting and to increase visits from tourists in low season with special agreements with tour operators.
Dutch blogger Jody Mijts participated in the fam trip. She promotes wine tasting on her website https://ongewoonlekker.com (50.000 unique visitors a month) as well as gastronomy and travelling. Another participant was René van Hoofrom with the Belgian gastronomy platform www.tasted4you.be (also with 50.000 unique visitors a month). Other participants included executives of tourist agencies DTS OTC Travel (www.dts-otc.be), Copco Travel (https://www.copcotravel.be) and Govaka & Pasar (https://www.govaka.be), specializing in à la carte holidays and alternative tourism.
During the trip, the participants took guided tours in Thessaloniki and experienced local gastronomy in various restaurants of the city. They also had the chance to taste a selection of wines in the wineries of Thessaloniki and Pieria. They tasted “Geovasileiou”, “Kourtis”, “Chrysostomou”, “Adamou”, “Pantoulis”, “Xiromeritis” and “POlychrou”.
The Belgian market seems to be ideal for the promotion of Greece as a wine tourism destination, given the preference of the Belgian people towards relaxation, activities, favorable weather conditions, gastronomy and interesting cultural events in their selection of holiday destination. At the same time, they consider quality of services and price levels significant.
It is noted that Greece is the fifth most popular tourist destination for this market, with arrivals from Belgium at a 6.4% increase in 2019.
