As a market man, I am well aware that the location of a store plays a crucial role in the viability of the business.
Especially when this store is on a main street and even in a "corner".
This is how I perceive the Region of Western Macedonia. A "corner" store with many quality products, to a point where there are thousands of customer crossings every day.
Unfortunately, we do not take advantage of this point either, nor do we project our place properly, nor our high quality products, not even the warm hospitality of our fellow citizens.
To be clear, Yesterday, Friday, I had the pleasure of talking to people from Egnatia Odos, where they manage road traffic.
They were recorded from eight in the morning until two in the afternoon 8.000 car crossings. And this number of crossings only in one breakfast.
With simple math we can calculate the size of the people who cross Western Macedonia during the four summer tourist months.
Of course we can do the same for the winter ones in a smaller size. So let's calculate that a private car where it crosses our Egnatia, three people on average are on board. Since in the morning we have eight o'clock 8.000 crossings, we can have an average of about calculating 15.000 Car crossings at twenty-four hours.
Therefore 45.000 people cross our place every day. If we multiply this by 120 days of the tourist season brings us the amazing number of 5.400.000 people where they cross the Egnatia Odos mainly for tourist reasons.
So we understand that the four regional units of Western Macedonia, that of Grevena, of Kastoria, of Kozani and Florina, have a huge human resource to address, so as to try to attract them as visitors to alternative tourism, at least two days, transforming our geomorphological disadvantage, the lack of sea that is, to an advantage.
Yes, it is possible for this to happen, there are, after all, many examples in the neighboring Region of Epirus and in the Region of Central Macedonia.
Our nature, our professionals, Our people, can and should take advantage of this corner shop called "Egnatia Odos and crosses Western Macedonia meaning Epirus, where it has the focal point of the port of Igoumenitsa, with central Macedonia where it has the second most important airport in the country and of course the port of Thessaloniki.
We have the golden opportunity. In fact, if we take into account the E-65, where it will soon be connected to Egnatia, the number of crossings increases to inconspicuous numbers, as Western Macedonia becomes a very important junction where it will connect the Athens-Thessaloniki National Road with the Egnatia Road where it crosses the whole of northern Greece.
Immediate promotion of our place is needed from the Region of Western Macedonia to the neighboring regions, but also in neighboring countries. Certainly not only in the Balkans but also in Europe, as in Italy where thousands of tourists visit Epirus every year. We need a view of our place in the ports and airports of northern Greece. I am sure that with the right political planning and the right promotion, will work and the best kind of advertising that is nothing more than the transmission of good impressions by word of mouth.
We have people in the market who are well aware of how wealth and good jobs are produced. Let us support them. We will need to change a part of our mentality, our work culture, but the result in the long run will justify us. As long as we do not leave this "corner shop" unexploited.
