Top Travel Agents Explore Veria in Greece

By Nikos Krinis

Veria’s main attractions and cuisine were at the center of a recent familiarization trip attended by representatives from 25 leading travel agencies from abroad. Veria is a city in Macedonia, northern Greece, located 511 kilometres from Athens and 73 km from Thessaloniki. The fam trip followed the B2B Travel Event Thessaloniki 2017 that took place on March 27-28 and was organized by marketing and promotion company Respond on Demand.

Aerial view of Veria. Photo © Greek Aerial Photos Portal

“Each year, right after the B2B travel event, we organize a fam trip to a different region in Greece for the buyers that were hosted at the event. Through these fam trips we try to introduce as many destinations in Greece as possible for the hosted travel agents to understand how multifaceted the country’s tourism product is,” Respond on Demand’s Maria Athanasopoulou told the Greek Travel Pages (GTP).

Respond On Demand, in cooperation with the city’s municipality, chose to introduce Veria this year and put together a fam trip based on the destination’s history, culture, identity and gastronomy.

Barboutas river, Veria. Photo © Facebook – ΟΙ ΟΜΟΡΦΙΕΣ ΤΗΣ ΕΛΛΑΔΑΣ ΜΑΣ

During their stay in Veria, the travel agents/hosted buyers, who came from Germany, the UK, Bulgaria, Turkey, the Netherlands, Romania, Serbia, South Africa and Lebanon, toured the city’s main attractions and had the opportunity to experience Veria’s local cuisine, a tourist product expected to have strong growth in the coming years.

“The travel agents from abroad that experienced a weekend of Veria, were impressed by what they saw, as the destination has archaeological sites, religious monuments — not only of Christianity — a rich tradition and culture and a special local gastronomy,” Athanasopoulou said.

Scheduled B2B meetings between the travel agents and Greek local tourism entrepreneurs also took place to establish new professional collaborations and boost incoming tourism to the destination. The meetings were arranged by Respond On Demand and Veria Municipality.

“Over 400 meetings took place during the two-day fam trip, which we hope will bring new partnerships to the tourism sector of Veria,” she added.

The Greek Travel Pages (GTP) was a communication sponsor of the B2B Travel Event Thessaloniki 2017.