On the 20th of May 2021, ALDA Skopje organized the online event “Local tourism: Possibilities and challenges” dedicated to the tourism stakeholders in North Macedonia.
This local activity organized in the framework of the project WB Cultours: Cultural tours in Western Balkans offered the opportunity for linking with local stakeholders such as touristic info centers, shops, accommodation facilities that would contribute to enrich cultural contents, tourist development potential, food, souvenirs, and other tourism services, thus contributing to achieving greater local ownership.
The participants came from different sectors like the tourism, hospitality industry, sports and finally a member from the municipality of Krushevo joined the discussion as representative of the local government.
After a very prolific discussion, the participants concluded that the potential of local tourism is big, as the pandemic measures made tourists choose touristic spots in their vicinity and that the small places that were safer were more attractive to tourists.
As one of the speaker said, “togetherness is the best tool”, so all participants and speakers agreed that regular meetings before and after the touristic season are needed so all stakeholders can organize them-self for all possibilities and challenges.
This event was also the perfect occasion to promote the Cultours mobile application that offers 3 tours to visit 9 monuments in the Western Balkans, a mobile tour all travel enthusiast who would like to rediscover Balkan forgotten history. The application piqued the interest of the participants as the Macedonian monument Makedonium is part of the second tour and it can be used as a tool for local development.
The project WB Cultours: Cultural tours in Western Balkans is implemented by the Balkan network for Local democracy and financed by the Western Balkans Fund.