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CHAPTER 1: HISTORY OF VERIA CITY AND GEOGRAPHICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF IMATHIA COUNTY (PERFECTURE)
1.1. HISTORY OF VERIA CITY
Foundation The city of Veria is one of the most ancient cities in Greece and Europe, since it has been founded during the second half of the 5th century BC, probably by the Macedonian King Feronas. City’s first residents were Acheoi who moved out by Dorian Macedonians. The city was the second most important city of Macedonian Empire after the capital Eges-Vergina. Romans conquered Macedonian Empire and the city of Veria became the ‘capital’ of the ex-Macedonian provinces within Roman Empire. During that historic period Veria became an important commercial and cultural center and this drove Apostle Paul to visit Veria twice in order to introduce the Christian Religion (50-51 A.C and 57 A.C). Byzantine Empire followed the Roman one and Veria was again one of the most significant administrative, religious, cultural and economic places of the new empire, whose capital was Constantinople. During the Byzantine era, the city became an important center of the Christian religion and the 48 Byzantine churches of unique architecture and beauty, which exist until now, can justify this. In 1430 Veria, alongside with the whole Byzantium, was occupied by the Ottomans and it’s glorious Byzantine times started to phase out. During the Ottoman Empire Veria became a crossroads of different cultures with Christians, Jews, Muslims and Armenians and this brought a new color in several cities’ areas architectural style, where different communities used to live in a productive and peaceful way. In 1912 with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Veria became part of the newly established Greek state.
1.2. IMATHIA COUNTY
Imathia County and its capital Veria belong administratively to the region of Central Macedonia. Its population is 144.172 people and it occupies 1.701 squared kilometers. It shares boundaries with Pella, Pieria, Thessaloniki and Kozani Counties and it covers mountainous (55%) and non-mountainous areas (45%). The vast majority of the population lives in the non-mountainous areas of the County where industry and agriculture sectors have been developed. Population that lives in the mountainous areas of Imathia is low and its main economic activity is animal growth.
CHAPTER 2: REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT POLICIES
2.1 Regional Development Policies
Region of Central Macedonia has introduced a number of development policies regarding local and regional cultural heritage linking it with tourism activities and the economy. All policies have been organized to meet strategic development needs, regional priorities and specific targets. More specifically: • Action 3.4. - Regional Development Program: Modernization of cultural resources. The aims are: o The development of modern tools for the reveal, support and dissemination of cultural heritage using technology and digital services o Development of cultural theme parks and modern cultural infrastructures o Initiatives for the supply of private culture related services o Development of new cultural institutions and enhancement of the existing ones. Action 5.1. - Regional Development Program: Development of special infrastructure emphasizing in the thematic tourism: Archeological tourism. Imathia County and the city of Veria are extremely rich in archeological findings. The Macedonian Dynasty’s Palaces and Tombs, the School of Aristotle, Veria’s Archeological Museum and a number of other archeological sites provide the essential ground for the development of this type of tourism. Cultural tourism. The City of Veria already offers the required infrastructure to support cultural events and festivals. The city has a distinguished tradition in the organization of cultural activities and this can be further developed. Religion tourism. In Veria exist a large number of Byzantine churches of unique value and the site from where Apostle Paul introduced the Christian religion to the city’s citizens. Educational tourism. Due to the number of archeological and other cultural sites, Imathia County and the city of Veria are favorite destinations for students and pupils from schools of Central Macedonia Region and neighboring Counties. Agricultural tourism. Agricultural tourism involves lodging in farms and in areas with rural activities. Families and people from larger cities are keen to spend a few days in the nature, taking part in a variety of farm activities, tasting traditional recipes and goods and involving themselves in a nature oriented way of life. On the other hand, farmers manage both to increase their income and market their products in an effective way. Alongside with the Regional Development Program, the EU development program LEADER PLUS, can finance agricultural tourism actions as well.
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The mountain Vermio and its villages offer rich natural heritage. The development of mountainous pathways with special places for bird watching and animal observation already attract a growing number of tourists. Sports tourism. Imathia County offers the essential infrastructure to become a ‘first class’ destination for the preparation phase of national and European football and basketball Clubs. Winter tourism. Seli ski resort is a place that attracts a number of skiers due to its good snow quality and to its proximity with Veria. Conference tourism. Veria’s ‘cultural house’ is a modern conference center able to organize major events. The forthcoming University foundation in Veria is expected to strengthen the conference tourism. Action 3.5. - Regional Development Program: Modernization of the infrastructure to support the development of the aforementioned types of tourism. This action finances: o Public investments. o Private Investments for the development of ‘soft’ tourism. Action 8.1- Regional Development Program: Education and training in the tourism related services. Action 2.2 - Regional Development Program: This action’s aim is the qualitative improvement of local small hotels, B&Bs, campings and other lodgings in order to become more competitive and capable to offer better services to all types tourists. Action 3.7. - Regional Development Program: Initiatives for the strengthening of the competitiveness of medium and small enterprises offering tourism related services. Action 6.2. - Regional Development Program: Plan for the development of Mount Vermio. Under this action the underdeveloped mountainous areas of Imathia can be finaced in order to put in place investments that guarantee sustainable development and income icrease for the population living there. EU Development program LEADER PLUS: LEADER PLUS is an initiative concerning rural areas and their development priorities. It plans to: 1. Enhance sustainable development and introduce pilot applications that guarantee the development of underdeveloped areas 2. Support the efforts for social inclusion of people that live in underdeveloped areas with emphasis in cultural activities.
Mountainous tourism and ecology.
CHAPTER 3: SOCIOECONOMIC AND CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT IN VERIA
3.1. POPULATION OF VERIA
3.1.1. Population and age groups
Veria is the County’s larger urban center. As can be observed in Table 1, Veria is the fourth biggest city in the Region of Central Macedonia, following Thessaloniki, Serres and Katerini.
Table 1: Population (2001) in the cities of Region of Central Macedonia
City Population
Serres 54.666 Katerini 52.709 Veria 43.683 Giannitsa 29.364 Naoussa 20.176 Kilkis 18.958 Edessa 18.832 Alexandria 14.370 Source: National Statistics, 2001
The city’s population follows the County’s trend: The biggest population groups are those aged 30 – 44 and 0 – 14 years of age. Those groups represent families and this finding indicates that Veria is a place that attracts family living. The Age group of 20 – 29 years of age is median since young people leave Veria either for studying elsewhere or for looking for jobs in larger cities. Finally, people aged more than 50 prefer to live in small villages of the County.
Graph 1: Population of Imathia County
Population in Imathia County
>=100 90-94 80-84 70-74 60-64 50-54 40-44 30-34 20-24 10-14 0-4
Male
Female
Graph 2: Population of Veria Source University of Thessaly: Veria Study 2004
Population in Veria
>=100 90-94 80-84 70-74 60-64 50-54 40-44 30-34 20-24 10-14 0-4 Male female
3.1.2. Educational level
According to the Greek National Statistics Services 36,5% of Imathia County’s population are primary school graduates and in case someone adds the number of people that either abandoned school or they do not know how to read and write, the percentage of people with minor or no education is more than 50% of the County’s total population. University graduates is the 16% of total population and the vast majority of them lives in the city of Veria. It is true, that the unskilled labor force is a major obstacle for the economic development of Veria and the County.
3.2. ECONOMY
C.2.1. The County’s Economy
The County’s economy is based on the primary sector and in particular on agriculture. Fruits, cotton and tobacco are the main goods produced in Imathia. Industry is mainly focused on the production of agricultural products but the total industry activity has significantly decreased due to the recession in the textile sector. A significant number of textile manufactures moved in the low cost Northern Balkan countriesr. Exports and tourism are additional sources of income. The majority of the exported Greek agricultural products to the rest of the European Union and third countries are produced in Imathia. Finally, the County’s rich cultural and natural environment attract a large number of tourists and this number is expected to increase should tourism related services become more competitive.
3.2.2. Income and employment
One third of the County’s labor force lives in Veria. The city’s economy is based on the third sector, since it covers more than 50% of its economic activity. In other words, modern Veria presents the traits of the majority of the medium sized European developing cities, that are based economically on services rather than manufacturing, following contemporary economy’s trends. Table 2 shows the percentage that each sector covers since 1981.
Table 2: Evolution of economic sectors in Veria
Years Sector 1981 1991 11,00% 26,51% 58,68% 2001 8,76% 21,99% 66,78% Primary 13,42% Secondary 36,49% Third 45,76% Source: National Statistics 2001
Veria captures 38,66% of County’s total GDP.
3.3. SOCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE
3.3.1. Education
In Veria exist 18 primary schools, one special primary school and 10 high schools. There are also 4 skills’ training schools and during 2005 a branch of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki will be founded, offering courses on urban development and engineering. The foundation of the first academic institution at University level signals a new era for the city, since a number of positive developments are expected: • Strengthening the City’s image. • Specialized graduates on urban development. • Development and renovation of underdeveloped areas of the city. • Organization of conferences on several issues.
3.3.2. Culture
Veria is a city with rich and diversified cultural activity. More specifically, Veria offers cultural infrastructure, cultural events and a number of cultural clubs engaged in a series of activities. Museums • Archeological Museum. • Vlahogiannio Museum of Modern History and Art. • Byzantine Museum. • Sarafoglou Museum of Local Traditions (under construction). Libraries • Central Public Library of Veria, which is fully equipped and organized. • Municipal Library. Buildings for cultural events • Cultural Center with state of the art technical infrastructure. • Conference center in the ‘Arts House’. • 1 Cinema Screen. • 2 open Cinema Screens operating during spring and summer months. • 1 open theatre in Papagos area. • 1 small theatre in Barbouta area. • Venue rooms in the Libraries. • All City’s Councils have their own venue rooms. Cultural Events • Since 1992 Veria hosts the Annual Meeting of Greek Municipal Theatres. • Since 1997 Veria hosts Tradition Festival in its old city’s area, Barbouta. • Spring competition on guitar play. • Annual Meeting of Classic and Modern Dance. • ‘Music during the spring’ Event. • Annual Week on Local Tradition. • Since 1992 Veria organizes a major Carnival Parade. • Veria’s folklore event in the Town Hall’s Square.
Cultural Clubs that are engaged in the aforementioned and other activities • ‘Promitheas’ cultural club organized by Promitheas City’s Council. • ‘Kalithea’ cultural and educational club organized by Kalithea City’s Council. • ‘Dimokritos’ cultural club organized by Panoroma City’s Council. • ‘Aristotle’ cultural and sports club. • ‘Athina’ educational and cultural club organized by Lazohori City’s Council. • Likio Ellinidon Verias traditional dance club. • Scouts of Veria. • Scouts of Veria, female branch. • ‘Seli’ cultural and tourism club. • ‘ΤΟΚ’ cultural and tourism club of Kastania. • Cultural and sports club of Rahi. • Cultural club Asomaton. • Cultural club ‘Komninos’. • Cultural club Vlahon. • Cultural club of Greeks from Minor Asia. • Cultural club of Crete. • Cultural club of Cypriots.
3.4. NATURAL & ARCHEOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT
3.4.1. Natural environment Within the County there are two Natura 2000 protected areas. The first one is mount Vermio and the second one is the river Aliakmonas. A third area, which is the meeting point of rivers Axios, Gallikos, Loudias and Aliakmonas is expected to be included in RAMSAR areas of great natural significance. Within the city of Veria there are two areas of great ecological importance, Tripotamos river and Tripotamos forest. 3.4.2. Archeological environment Archeological areas have been characterized: • The sites near St Barbara. • The ancient walls of Veria. • The sites of Eges-Vergina. • Macedonian Cemetery near Aliakmonas River. • Small Town of the Hellenistic Era. • Buildings of Roman Era.
CHAPTER 4: CULTURAL HERITAGE DIGITAL AVAILABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY
4.1. INTERNET PENETRATION
According to the Operational Plan for the Information Society in the Region of Central Macedonia Internet penetration in the region’s Counties is:
Table 3: Internet penetration in the Region of Central Macedonia
Thessaloniki
Chalkidiki
Imathia
Internet users 3 339 98 833 2 097 3 494 4 578 5 350 1 971 119 851 % Of users in the region 2.79 82.46 1.75 2.92 3.82 4.46 1.64 100.00 Users per 100 residents 2.32 9.44 2.34 2.42 3.55 2.67 1.87 6.44 The Table above, indicates that Internet usage is high enough only in the County of Thessaloniki, while Imathia lies in the average Internet usage of the region which is low. VPRC conducted a survey regarding Internet usage in Greece and the conclusions of that survey are: • • • • 20,5% of the population uses PC. 44% out of this population group uses PCs at home only, while 23% uses PCs only at their workplaces. The rest 19% makes use of PCs both at home and at work. Only 10,1% of the total population makes use of Internet: 56% of Internet users uses Internet at home, 31% at work, 7% at school, college and university and finally 3% of Internet users visits Internet shops. 50% of PC users are Internet users as well. There is a high number of new PC and Internet users in Greece. 71% of PC users started using it during the last 5 years, while 75% of all Internet users started using it during the last 2 years.
The trend of PC and Internet usage is significantly increasing in Greece but unfortunately there is an important digital gap between the two large cities of Athens and Thessaloniki and the smaller ones such as Veria. This gap is even greater between Counties’ Capital cities (i.e. Veria) and the other semi-urban and rural areas of the Counties.
REGION
Serres
Pieria
Kilkis
Pella
4.2. CULTURE & TECHNOLOGY IN IMATHIA
Internet and technology usage is probably the most important driver for the development and provision of electronic services from culture related organisations. As discussed above, in Imathia County and in Veria, Internet users are limited and as a consequence one can expect electronic accessibility and availability of cultural heritage sources to be limited as well. The SupplyDemand law rules the availability of electronic services and since there was not a significant demand for this kind of services due to the limited number of technology users, cultural heritage sites and electronic accessibility of cultural sources remained underdeveloped. However, studies show that Internet penetration of businesses and households has risen in Imathia over the last five years and the trend is expected to continue in the immediate future. This makes cultural heritage bodies to re-think their role and to re-organise their services, transforming themselves to ‘technology friendly’ organisations. A number of Veria’s cultural heritage organizations started to provide electronic services but there is no data available showing the usage frequency of these services. Imathia’s museums and sites available electronically and accessible through Internet (www.culture.gr) are:
Museums
1 Veria Archeological Museum 2 Royal Tombs of Vergina 3 Sarafoglou Local Tradition Museum 4 Veria Byzantine Museum
Sites
1 School of Aristotle 2 Macedonian Tombs of Lissonos and Kallikleous 3 Macedonian Tomb of Krissos 4 Macedonian Tomb of Anthemoi Dynasty 5 Ancient Theatre of Kopanos 6 Cities of Vergina and Eges 7 Old Christian Basilique Churches of Sfikia 8 Veria’s Ancient Walls 9 Church of Jesus Christ in Veria
Apart of the aforementioned culture related organizations who have started offering digital services, Veria Central Public Library, recognizing that its role is not just a place for reading and learning but can also act as center of cultural activity, developed at an early stage (1997) its own website for remote access by individuals who do not find it easy to make frequent physical visits. Veria Central Public Library is, apart of its main activities, actively engaged in County’s cultural life, promoting the management of knowledge and making reading more popular. Cultural events are organized for the general public and special interest groups. It also participates in events organized by third parties, both inside and outside the Municipality of Veria. Finally, it rents out its venue room to other bodies, hosting events on cultural topics.
Illustration 1: Website home page
The page is designed to allow the user to perform a number of interesting tasks. First of all it meets general and special interest information needs, with search engines, travel etc. On a second level it provides information and access through links to other pages of agencies, organisations and businesses in the region. Links to the official Municipal sites of Veria and Naoussa and to
County’s site are also provided allowing users to learn more about the area and the cultural activity that takes place.
Illustration 3: Municipal and County’s sites
It gives access to the Library’s own catalogue. As part of the Internet Sites programme funded by the Operational Programme Information Society, the Library is preparing the development of a website with advanced content management tools to ensure a continuous flow of information through the site, and to facilitate updating of that information. The first version of the website can be seen in Illustration 2.
Illustration 2: Home page of ‘Internet sites’ portal
CHAPTER 5: TOURISM AS A DRIVER FOR THE PROMOTION OF CULTURAL HERITAGE
5.1. TOURISM
The tourism activity of a place is closely linked to supply and demand. Supply represents all tourism resources a place is able to offer to its visitors. Tourism supply can be divided in two categories: • Primary supply includes all natural and cultural resources a place offers, coupled by any additional reason that can cause mobility of tourists to a place. • Secondary supply includes the essential infrastructure, lodging, restaurants, sports facilities, marinas etc a place offers and can make tourists eager to revisit this place or speak well it.
5.1.1. Tourism resources
Tourism resources in Veria are numerous attracting people of different origin and of diversified interests. Within the City of Veria tourists can find the following interesting cultural sites: • Apostle Paul site. This is the place from where the ‘Apostle of all Nations’ Paul addressed on 5051 A.C. and 57 A.C. to the citizens, introducing the Christian Religion. This is a site of universal importance for all Christians and every year Veria hosts ‘Paulia’ venue commemorating Apostle’s speeches. • Roman Avenue. This is part of the ancient Roman Avenue that was linking Veria with the major Roman Empire’s Avenue, Via Egnatia. • Ottoman sites. The twin Ottoman Baths which were built on the 16th century, the Mentrese Tzami built on the 19th century and the Orta Tzami that was built on the 15th century. • The Ancient Walls. The Walls surround the city and they started to be constructed during the Hellenistic years. • Byzantine Tower in Barbouta area. • Byzantine churches There are 48 Byzantine churches of great architectural beauty. • Historic areas of Kiriotissa and Barbouta. These areas of Veria city are historic since they have managed to keep their unique architecture. In each one of these areas, used to concentrate either the city’s Christian or Jewish or Muslim community and as a consequence tourists can feel the different styles and the urban development during the multicultural Byzantine and Ottoman Empires. • ‘Neo-classic’ buildings. Through out the city there are lot of ‘neo-classic’ buildings that used to be residences of the 17th and 18th centuries’ upper class • Veria’s Museums. Archeological Museum, Vlahogiannio Museum of Modern History and Art, Byzantine Museum and Sarafoglou Museum of Local Traditions which is under construction.
• Papagos forest. • Cultural Venues. • Mountain Vermio and Seli Ski resort • Byzantine Monasteries that are built on the 12th–14th. • Archeological sites The ancient city, which is located near Veria, is Eges, the Ancient capital city of Macedonian Empire. Eges reached its peak on the 5th and 4th centuries B.C., as it was the administrative and religious center of Macedonia. The major archeological finding in the region is the Tombs of Macedonian Dynasty. Tourists can see the Tomb of King Philippos II (359-336 B.C.), father of Alexander the Great, which was revealed untouched with all its gold. Additionally, one can see the Ancient Palace and an Ancient Theatre, the City’s Acropolis and the City’s Walls Northeast of Veria is located one of the oldest Neolithic communities that is dated around the 7th millennium B.C.
5.1.2. Tourism
According to Veria’s Municipal Authority on Tourism September, October and November are the months with the highest tourist movement. The period from May until July is the low season for Veria and Imathia and this can be justified by the preference of tourists for sea resorts.
Graph 4: Number of tourists per month and per 10-day period
Number of tourists per month and per 10 day
3500 3000 No 2500 of To 2000 uri sts 1500 1000 500 0 May June July August September Months October November
Month 10 day
December
The table below is very interesting since it categorizes tourists according to the tourist activity that attracted them to the region.
Table 5: Tourists according to tourist activity(2003)
May Agricultural Tourism Sports Tourism Archeological Tourism Educational Tourism Religion Tourism Cultural Tourism Wine Tourism Mountainous Tourism-Ecology Historic city areas Winter Tourism 70 0 450 50 130 10 30 80 280 0 June 50 0 240 250 160 250 0 70 160 0 July 0 0 350 0 150 70 15 65 230 0 August 0 50 420 50 370 70 0 10 380 0 1350 September 0 0 1200 50 570 0 0 87 1050 0 2957 October 0 920 79 600 500 523 0 0 260 0 2882 November 0 0 610 0 140 0 0 930 510 0 2190 December 0 135 180 135 75 0 0 440 211 50 1226 Total 120 1105 3529 1135 2095 923 45 1682 3081 50 13765
Total 1100 1180 880 Source: Veria Municipal Tourism Authority
According to the data above, the majority of the tourist activity is driven by the area’s archeological sites. Visits in the historic areas of the city are ranked as the second reason for traveling to Veria, while religion tourism is almost equal to the mountainous one. Sports tourism and Educational are present heavily during October, since this is the month when schools from the region organize educational city breaks and a number of sports clubs continue their preparation for the various leagues. Wine tourism is low in the list due to the absence of the required infrastructure and due to poor marketing.
CHAPTER 6: SWOT ANALYSIS
6.1. SWOT ANALYSIS
The SWOT analysis is useful to determine the level of readiness of cultural heritage organizations and other related local bodies. SWOT analysis examines all variables that construct the internal and external environment and can play a strategic role in the development of new practices. More specifically, the following SWOT analysis questions the: • Strengths of Veria’s cultural organizations. • Weaknesses of Veria’s cultural organizations. • Opportunities existing in the external environment. • Threats existing in the external environment.
TABLE 6: SWOT Analysis
Strengths
• • • • • • Veria’s rich history and contemporary culture Unlimited tourism resources Geographical position in the center of the region and close to Balkan countries Rich natural environment Qualitative agricultural products and back to centuries agricultural tradition Proximity to the Metropolitan city of Thessaloniki
Weaknesses
• • • • • • Unskilled human resources Low technology deployment Absence of a coherent cultural policy Shortage of infrastructure Shortage of financial resources able to support new initiatives Absence of place marketing policy
Opportunities
• • • • • Foundation of University Financing through E.U. structural funds Links of culture with different forms of tourism Construction of transport infrastructure E.U. enlargement and increase of tourists from the neighboring Balkan states
Threats
• • • • Proximity to Thessaloniki Immigrants from Balkan statesunemployment Immigration of manufacturing to neighboring low cost states Absence of entrepreneurship able to attract young educated people in the city
6.1.2. Strengths
Veria is located in a strategic position, close to a number of smaller cities. Networks development among culture related organizations and other local bodies from neighboring cities and Balkan states would affect positively the image of the whole region. Moreover, the effective cooperation of different bodies can lead to significant benefits by sharing all kinds of expertise and by planning common strategic policies. Additionally, Veria’s cultural organizations can ‘invest’ on the city’s proximity to Thessaloniki where 1 million people lives. The right promotion of the region’s cultural and natural heritage coupled by the right promotion of its tradition on agricultural products, can attract systematically the increasing number of people who look for educational, relaxed and ‘nature oriented’ city breaks. Veria culture organizations’ most important strength is the area’s history, which allows the city to develop its unique identity. The promotion of this identity and its link with tourism and the economy can be accelerated through the effective use of technology. Finally, cultural heritage bodies need to get involved in place marketing in order to promote the area’s beautiful mountainous areas and their unique natural environment.
6.1.3. Threats
The shortage of young graduates is an obstacle to the increase of the level of readiness of the local cultural organizations. As discussed in previous chapter the educational level in Veria is low and this makes the recruitment of skilled employees a challenge. Moreover, the level of Internet and technology
penetration is not high enough and as a consequence cultural organizations are not ‘pushed’ to provide digital services to the public. Furthermore, local culture organizations are mainly financed by the limited national funds. To bypass financial issues culture bodies need to develop self-sustained services either in cooperation with the private sector or by using E.U. funding. Finally the absence of coherent common policies and policies of place marketing does not allow the rapid increase of culture related tourism.
6.1.4. Opportunities
The forthcoming University foundation in Veria will elaborate the ‘cultural base’ of the city. The large number of academia that is expected will ask for new services to be provided by local organizations. Young graduates will start coming out from the university and it will be a challenge for Veria to keep them in the city. Furthermore the construction of significant transport infrastructure lowers the distance between the neighboring cities making traveling quicker and safer. The cargo airport of Imathia is expected to accelerate export activity and bring new export firms and trading houses to the area. The funds available by the European Union can provide solutions for the organizations that seek financing in order to support their development plans. Finally, the enlargement of the European Union brings a new market closer to Veria since it is now easier for the city to promote its identity to tourists from the neighboring Balkan states and to communicate to them all different types of tourism and cultural activities that can make use of.
6.1.5. Threats
The primary threat that culture organizations in Veria need to confront is the increasing unemployment, which is caused by the low cost immigrants from the Balkan states and by the immigration of local manufacturing companies to lower cost states. This causes ‘no return’ of young educated people who cannot easily find employment and isolation of the mountainous and semimountainous areas where the local unskilled labor used to live. The proximity to Thessaloniki makes this threat bigger since the majority of the area’s young people prefer living there due to employment opportunities.
ΣΥΜΠΕΡΑΣΜΑΤΑ
Σκοπός της έρευνας αυτής είναι η κατάστρωση αναπτυξιακής στρατηγικής της πόλης και του Δήμου Βέροιας στα πλαίσια του στρατηγικού σχεδιασμού και της βιώσιμης ανάπτυξης. Βασικός στόχος είναι η παραγωγή μιας διαφοροποιημένης και ισχυρής, τοπικά, οικονομικής βάσης και η βελτίωση της ποιότητας ζωής των κατοίκων. Έτσι, εξετάστηκαν τα σημαντικότερα ζητήματα που καθορίζουν το αναπτυξιακό πλαίσιο της περιοχής και οι προτάσεις που διατυπώθηκαν αφορούν δράσεις οι οποίες μπορούν να αναληφθούν τόσο από τις δημοτικές αρχές όσο και από τον ιδιωτικό τομέα. Η Βέροια αποτελεί την πρωτεύουσα του νομού Ημαθίας και πόλη με μεγάλη πολιτιστική παράδοση. Δεν είναι τυχαίο άλλωστε ότι έχει χαρακτηριστεί «βυζαντινή» πόλη. Τις τελευταίες δεκαετίες σημείωσε πληθυσμιακή αύξηση με μεγαλύτερο ρυθμό από την αντίστοιχη του νομού με αποτέλεσμα ο πληθυσμός της πόλης να ανέρχεται σήμερα στους 42.794 κατοίκους (ΕΣΥΕ, 2001). Η δημογραφική πυραμίδα του δήμου εμφανίζεται σχετικά γηρασμένη, ωστόσο, η ηλικιακή κατανομή δείχνει ότι η πόλη της Βέροιας αποτελεί πόλο έλξης οικογενειών με μικρά παιδιά. Αρνητικό χαρακτηριστικό για την ανάπτυξη του δήμου αποτελεί το χαμηλό μορφωτικό επίπεδο του δήμου. Όσον αφορά την οικονομική διάρθρωση της περιοχής, χαρακτηρίζεται από διαχρονικές τάσεις τριτογενοποίησης (65,15% της απασχόλησης) ακολουθώντας τις γενικότερες τάσεις της οικονομίας. Παρόλα αυτά, ο πρωτογενής τομέας (10,51% της απασχόλησης) έχει σημαντική συμβολή στο εισόδημα των κατοίκων της περιοχής, σε έναν νομό που χαρακτηρίζεται αγροτικός. Τέλος, ο δευτερογενής στηρίζεται σε μεγάλο ποσοστό στην επεξεργασία των αγροτικών προϊόντων και περιλαμβάνει το 21,88% των απασχολούμενων. Η ανεργία αποτελεί πολύ σημαντικό πρόβλημα για την πόλη και τον Δήμο καθώς αγγίζει το 15%, παραμένοντας όμως κάτω από τον μέσο όρο του νομού. Η ανάπτυξη της απασχόλησης πρέπει να αποτελέσει προτεραιότητα για τον Δήμο Βέροιας και αυτό μπορεί να συμβεί κυρίως μέσω της τόνωσης της τοπικής οικονομίας. Η τοπική οικονομία, στηρίζεται σε μεγάλο βαθμό στην αγροτική παραγωγή και κυρίως στο ροδάκινο. Ο δευτερογενής τομέας, χαρακτηρίζεται από μικρομεσαίες επιχειρήσεις οι οποίες βρίσκονται διάσπαρτες στον αστικό ιστό ή στο δήμο. Ο τουρισμός, μπορεί να αποτελέσει συμπληρωματική πηγή εισοδήματος για τους κατοίκους, καθώς η περιοχή πληροί όλες τις προϋποθέσεις για την ανάπτυξή του. Τόσο οι αρχαιολογικοί χώροι, με κύριο τη Βεργίνα, το χιονοδρομικό κέντρο στο Σέλι όσο και οι φυσικές ομορφιές του τόπου με και το πλούσιο πολιτιστικό περιβάλλον, είναι σε θέση να προσελκύσουν πληθώρα τουριστών με διαφορετικά ενδιαφέροντα. Σε αυτή την κατεύθυνση, απαραίτητη είναι η δημιουργία σύγχρονων τουριστικών καταλυμάτων, αφού η τα υφιστάμενα είναι πολύ λιγότερα από τις δυνατότητες της περιοχής. Επιπλέον δράσεις για την ενίσχυση της απασχόλησης μπορούν