This year’s Hiking and Trekking Exhibition in Duesseldorf seemed a bit different to me then other years. Not many Greek islands were in a position to send a representative and in general we had less visitors.

All 3 days we had the most beautiful summer weather – so people who like hiking and trekking were probably out hiking and trekking, and not inside and visiting an exhibition.

But still it was a good opportunity for the island and the Andros Routes project to get a lot of attention. Because of our Best of Europe LQT Certification we were allowed to do a presentation and to show the beautiful little movie about the OnFoot Festival on stage. It was not so much the visitors who were interested, but many exhibitors visited our stand and decided to give it a try and come to our island. Our footpaths were often mentioned as the perfect example for how a small group of volunteers could make such a huge project work.

Most of the German visitors had already planned their holidays at least until next spring, but I am sure the presentation and the material we had on our stand will have made some impression on them, and hopefully – when it comes to planning next years tours – many of them will remember the beautiful pictures they had seen from Andros’ nature.