As every year, our organization participated, presenting the Andros Routes project, at the 7th Panhellenic Trails Meeting held from Friday 15th to Sunday 17th November in Chania. The Meeting was organized by the Region of Crete in collaboration with the Municipality of Chania and the Regional Development Company of Crete.

Institutional bodies, professionals, representatives of civil society bodies, representatives of important international organizations for hiking, as well as representatives and professionals of publications and media, discussed about today and tomorrow of hiking and especially hiking networks, in Greece, presenting their work.

The rich program of the Meeting included presentations of hiking networks and the managers of these networks from all over Greece – for example Mainalo, Zagori, Kilkis, Agios Efstratios, Ymittos, Kasos, Kythira and of course Chania – as well as projects that are “in progress”. It also included a discussion on the E4 path of Crete, while the work of professionals in the field of printed cartography, digital mapping (with the help of AI), as well as projects and infrastructures highlighting hiking routes were also presented.

In the framework of the meeting, the different management models of hiking networks, the opportunities emerging from hiking tourism for local communities and the connection of routes with cultural heritage were discussed. Questions and concerns were raised about the significant commitment and care required for the supervision and maintenance of hiking networks, but also about the threats of industrial-scale Renewable Energy Sources – mainly pylons and wind turbines – to the natural and cultural heritage of many regions of our country. The attitude of the Mayors of the Prefecture of Chania was interesting, as they unanimously expressed their opposition and a warning in all directions that these projects will not “pass” in their areas.

The presentation of our project in Andros took place in the context of the panel “Workshop: Creation, operation, maintenance, promotion of networks of hiking routes/paths” held by Olga Karagianni and Katerina Pantazi with the title: “Andros Routes: Network of routes and management structure – The path and lessons of 15 years (2010-2024)”. As part of our presentation, a brief history of the project, route maintenance and supervision tools and schemes, and the project as a hiking route management structure were presented.

The economic benefits of the project and its parallel actions were highlighted, through the enrichment of the tourist product of Andros and the extension of the tourist season. The contribution of the use of hiking routes to the health and quality of life of the residents, the strengthening of local human resources (capacity building) in the fields of the maintenance of the hiking infrastructure of Andros, but also in the recording process and in general the reconnection with the cultural heritage were also highlighted. The important role of the volunteers in the maintenance of the routes, the people of the primary sector as well as the people of the Cultural Associations, as guardians of the natural and cultural heritage of Andros, was emphasized. Finally, the need for continuous and practical support of the project from the local authorities was underlined.

Olga Karagianni then moderated the round table on “Trails as a tool for local sustainable development”, where operators of UNESCO trails and geoparks, producers of the primary sector and service providers of the region of Crete had the opportunity to talk about how the sustainable local development is linked to the use of hiking networks, to share their experiences but also the challenges they face.

Rich and extremely interesting were the parallel events of the organization which included a visit and guided tour of the New Archaeological Museum of Chania, the Archaeological Site of Aptera and the Koules Fortress, a screening of the film “Pn the wandering paths” in collaboration with the Chania Film Festival, a concert with the music of the paths of Crete, as well as hiking on the paths of Chania Trails in Apokoronas, Platanias and Selino.

Many thanks to the organizers of the Meeting for the hospitality!

See you at the 8th Panhellenic Trail Meeting next year in Kastoria!

You can see the full program of the event here and the video here. Our presentation starts at minute 50.25.