VERIA, Greece – Unlike the world-famous flowering cherry trees of Japan, the carpets of pink blossoms that transform the rolling hills of Veria and their peach orchards each spring are perhaps among Greece’s best kept “secrets”, ANA reports
In recent years, an effort has been made to change this, and turn Veria’s famous peach farms into a tourist attraction as well as an agricultural resource, through a photography contest and other events held on March 16-17.
“What we saw before us each March was an endless pink carpet of flowering peach trees but to tell the truth, because we have grown up with it, we never really took notice,” admitted Zisis Patsikas, president of the Veria Tourism Club.
He said the effort was to try to tap into the potential to create added tourism value through photographs of the peach blossoms, in the same way that Tokyo has succeeded in doing with the images of cherry blossoms that flood the social media each year, taken by both tourists as well as local Japanese.
He pointed out that entering the competition was simple and open to everyone, using both cameras or even just their phones.
The photography contest is just one of the events held by the club around Veria’s peaches, Patsikas added. Others include the annual “Peach Festival” that is linked to the region’s gastronomy, culture and other activities and, since 2017, an annual 17-kilometre “Bicycle Ride through the Flowering Peach Trees”, which this year will be held on Sunday, March 17.
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