Municipality of Katerini now among Smart Tourism Destinations

The Municipality of Katerini joined the Smart Tourism Destinations Program, a network consisting of 50 European cities, in the context of the effort to highlight its comparative advantages through collaborations with European cities, utilizing programs and resources of the European Union.

What is Smart Tourism Destinations

Smart Tourism Destinations is a European Commission initiative to support selected EU cities to facilitate their access to tourism and hospitality products and services through technological innovation. These cities will be taught how to implement innovative digital solutions to make tourism sustainable and accessible, making full use of their cultural heritage and creativity to enhance the tourism experience.

The project will focus on how EU cities can adopt data-driven approaches to become or improve as a smart tourist destination and will be attended by a large number of stakeholders (50 European cities, including Katerini), including policy makers, tourism professionals and academic researchers.

The goals of the municipality

“We will take advantage of every opportunity that will stimulate travel to our Municipality. The cooperation with other European cities and institutions is an opportunity to enrich our actions and in combination with the targeted interventions in all areas of tourist interest, to achieve the goals we have set from the beginning “, said the mayor of Katerini Costas Koukodimos.

“Our tourism product has a multitude of remarkable features. With every step we seek to strengthen the practices of strategic promotion of the city”, said the Deputy Mayor of Tourism of Katerini Maria Terzidou.

Referring to the program, she stressed that its aim is to lay the foundations for cooperation, exchange of knowledge and exchange of experiences and best practices within the EU tourism ecosystem. Through this cooperation we aim to support our destination and improve our management capacity through tourist data from the Municipality of Katerini.

Ms. Terzidou underlined that the participation in Smart Tourism Destinations is an initiative of the European Commission. Regarding the inaugural meeting with the Commission, the independent experts and the other selected destinations, it is scheduled for June 2022. The purpose of the first meeting, the first acquaintance between the stakeholders and the presentation of the selected destinations – Municipalities.