Remote Greek villages of Zagori get wi-fi and attract more tourists

Travelers and residents in Greece’s far outpost remote villages and islands get to enjoy the natural wonders but not the Internet which was not available or slow to those who had alternate means of connecting but a European Union project is helping bring them Wi-Fi and access to a whole new electronic world.

In a feature, Euronews revealed how it’s been a revelation and changing lives for people who’ve lived in far away villages in mountains, valleys and elsewhere, such as Megalo Papigo, in the Zagori region of northern Greece’s Pindos Mountains, with some 5000 villages getting broadband Internet access.

“I have experienced life before and after the Internet,” Nikos Tsoumanis who has a small hotel-restaurant and grocery store there told the news site about the discovery. “Before there were many difficulties in terms of communication, customer relations, the sale of our products, and for promoting our companies. And now the speed is huge.”

It helps solve another problem for them as Greece requires tax returns to be filed electronically, leaving residents in places without Wi-Fi to find cafes or other places where it is available and the program has connected hundreds of thousands of people in 45 percent of Greece.

The Zagori region is famous for rafting and hiking and the arrival of broadband has resulted in an increase in tourism and more, the story said.

“There has been a 30 percent increase in tourist bookings. Secondly, our agricultural products are sold all over the world, via the Internet. Our village, our region has come out of isolation,” said Zagori’s Mayor George Soukouvelos.

The total budget for this project is 199,715,75 euros ($221,095.32) as the scheme began some 12 years ago but hadn’t reached many parts of Greece, leaving residents without access and tourists and Greeks returning to their villages in the summer cut off as well unless they use other means of connecting.

“What we see is that a number of startups or businesses have been stabilized in these areas, and remain there without having to move their facilities to more urban areas due to this simple connection that they can use,” Antonis Tzortzakakis, General Secretary of |Telecommunications and Posts, Ministry of Digital Governance told Euronews.

Greece’s state-run telecommunications company OTE has installed 12,000 kilometers (7,456 miles) of optical fiber in more than 2,000 remote villages and has provided broadband Internet in 320,000 inhabitants and now the OTE network in these areas has a penetration capacity of up to 25% and it’s increasing all the time.

Read more at thenationalherald.com

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations, Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report

Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons License: CC-BY-SA Copyright: Skamnelis