Central Macedonia Region Hailed at OTA 2023 Local Government Awards

Central Macedonia Deputy Governor and Thessaloniki Tourism Organization (TTO) President Voula Patoulidou. Photo source: Central Macedonia Region.

The Central Macedonia Region recently won five accolades at the inaugural OTA Awards ceremony, held last week at Zappeion Hall in Athens.

Organized by digital news platform OTAPOST, the awards are the only ones addressed exclusively to primary and secondary local government organizations, highlighting and rewarding actions and projects for innovation, sustainability, quality of city life and services to citizens for the four-year period, 2019-2023.

Central Macedonia Deputy Governor and Thessaloniki Tourism Organization (TTO) President Voula Patoulidou received the awards on behalf of the Region.

During her acceptance speech, Patoulidou highlighted the achievements of the “Metropolitan Thessaloniki” program which managed to become a “model of contemporary local government administration“.

White Tower, Thessaloniki. Photo source: Central Macedonia Film Commission Office.

“It is important to remember that behind the numbers proving our success, there is a team of people. A team with which we will continue to create best practices standards for the 2023-2027 period,” she added.

The Central Macedonia Region won the following awards:

• Best Smart Integrated Traffic Management System.
• Best Unification of Central Traffic Management Systems.
• The Thessaloniki Urban Sustainable Development Observatory.
• Best Subsoil Clean-up and Remediation Project.
• And the Best Regional Film Office, which has, over the last four years, managed to promote Central Macedonia and Thessaloniki as a prime filming destination with numerous Hollywood- produced films already shot in the area.

Central Macedonia Governor Apostolos Tzitzikostas (photo center).Photo source: OTA Awards.

Furthermore, the award for “Best Regional Governor of Four Years” was presented to Apostolos Tzitzikostas, Central Macedonia’s Regional Governor.

According to its organizers, the OTA awards aim to keep rewarding local Greek governments who have worked hard to improve the daily lives of their citizens and their environmental performance and promote the innovative solutions, projects and actions of the winning local authorities/regions as examples for others to follow.