Local Tour: the «honest», quality product

The Imathia Development Agency (Anaptyxiaki Nomou Imathias S.A.) invited us to take part, on 29 and 30 October 2024, in a two-day thematic workshop on showcasing the «honest», quality product as a tourist and gastronomic destination.

Our cooperative took part, presenting dishes and techniques together with the other participants, which turned into food we all enjoyed together afterwards! We learned a lot, visited producers in our area, and all in all it was a pleasant and enlightening two days.

It was an activity of the transnational and inter-territorial cooperation project «LOCAL TOUR», carried out under Sub-measure 19.3 CLLD/LEADER of the Rural Development Programme (RDP) 2014-2020 and co-funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the Ministry of Rural Development and Food. The Local Tour partnership is a transnational cooperation between 22 Local Action Groups from two countries (Greece and Cyprus), whose main aim is to develop local, inter-regional and transnational actions of shared interest, to achieve synergies and create integrated interventions in the field of gastronomic culture.

The thematic workshops were hands-on and included a tour along trails of local flavours. They also informed and raised the awareness of producers, processors and tourism businesses (mainly restaurants), with priority to those along the routes, about the idea of the honest product and the value of promoting it as such, and of course about the project's routes.

The aim of the activity was for local people to learn about the opportunities gastronomic tourism offers both to businesses and to the local economy, to get to know good examples from other parts of Europe and of Greece, to be trained in the idea of the «honest product» and the value it has for every visitor, and to become ambassadors of gastronomic tourism for their area.