Workshop “Road Safety & Tourism – Safe travel in the Peloponnese”

Representatives and experts representing the Prefecture of Peloponnese, motorway opperators (OLYMPIA ODOS), hotel management (HCH, Tourist Organization of Peloponnese, Hoteliers Association of Corinthia, TESMES SA – Costa Navarino), the development and promotion of cultural and other alternative routes (DIAZOMA Association, Venikos Tours Ltd – Nemea Winemakers Association), Academic Institutions and communities (NTUA and The Athenian Foundation for Education & Research),  the Ministry of Economy, Development and Tourism, the Hellenic National Tourism Organization, the Hellenic Organisation for Standardisation, professional, scientific and social organisations (Association of Greek RegionalIsts, Association of Greek Transportation Engineers, Aris Stathakis Foundation – StAr – for Road Safety, Friends of the Old Car Club – FILPA, and REACTION/ YOURS from Cyprus), with the participation of experts, stakeholders and journalists (Eleftheros Typos, Kathimerini/ SKY and TravelTimes),  recognised the parameters and proposed prevention measures to ensure an acceptable level of safety for travellers, and tourists, who constitute a vulnerable group of road users.

The measures discussed focused on cooperation initiatives and the development of pilot actions that can “intelligently” and effectively benefit from the funding opportunities by regional, national or European programmes and could be supported by the participating organisations.

Taking advantage of the improvement of the national road network and the developments in vehicle safety, the proposed partnerships refer horizontally to:

1. informing/ raising awareness to travelers about the road safety condition at their destination,
2. the improvement road signage especially on the regional road network, so as to be more helpful for the international tourists
3. the cultivation of road safety culture,
4. the appropriate management/ sharing of knowledge between road safety stakeholders and the tourism industry,
5. establishing good practices for responsible road safety management in the tourism industry, and
6. synergies and complementing

Pilot actions would be designed and implemented by Cooperative Networks coordinated by the Prefecture of Peloponnese or development companies, for each destination (e.g. Municipality or wider area), to serve the strategy of regional development through the sustainable tourism.

Indicatively, an interesting action discussed for the area  Isthmus-Loutraki-Corinth-Lechaio-Vrachati-Nemea could take advantage of the positive features of wine tourism, turning the challenge of admiration and worship of Nemea wines into an opportunity to consolidate and establish good practices for the responsible management of road safety.

The presentation of Dr. E. Bellos, representative of Make Roads Safe Hellas can be found here.