If you have been on the paralia recently, you might have been handed one of these (the image enlarges if you click on it) by a young researcher from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. It’s a survey commissioned by the dimarkeion, municipality, its tourism committee and the association of Skopelos hoteliers, asking visitors about their experience on their visit to Skopelos. The data – they’re hoping for a sample of 500 responses, considered representative in most surveys – will be analyzed and then passed on to a marketing company that is planning a tourism promotion campaign for Skopelos in 2016. It’s interesting alone that the dimarkeion is pro-actively seeking public opinion; and even more so that, after the Pame Skopelos! campaign of 2012, another is in the pipeline. We’ll be activating our network of deeply-embedded spies to bring you more when they crack the safe code.
Are you being served?
September 15, 2015 by skopelosnews
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This is certainly a good move and will help tailor any promotional campaign. Among important questions are “how many times visited” and “why Skopelos”.
Another (future) initiative that would prove helpful for the island would be a questionnaire regarding the holiday experience, for example what people liked and what they didn’t like and use that information to tailor infrastructure decisions. Certainly this would be a more difficult questionnaire because to avoid “leading” questions with boxes to tick, such a survey would require writing answers. The results could be revealing.
Perhaps our readers have suggestions for additional questions?
this looks like a stock questionnaire that they just wrote “skopelos” rather than whatever other destination it was designed for.. there hasn’t been any advertising campaign to influence people as far as i know..and coming here to visit an exhibition?? and i don’t think the island registers on a gastronomic map.. but its nice they are doing something..however rather than a tick box rather unfocussed survey a couple of days talking to people would provide far more insight. advertising works but only if it structured correctly and has clear targets. random actions like the logo episode have no effect..i agree with whichever tom was the first comment but verbal answers are easier to come by and often more revealing.. top 3 best things about skopelos and worst 3 things would provide a starting point..
Great idea. How can we get across to whoever controls the ferries how it is impossible to get to, or from Skopelos from Skiathos during the season without spending hours and hours wandering about Skiathos usually pulling luggage, waiting either for a ferry or your plane departure. We have been going to Skopelos for over 20 years and this situation is getting worse. There were no ferries from Skopelos to Skiathos after the 7.15 flying dolphin until after 16.00 hrs in the afternoon (Friday). This has to be a joke during the high season and I am sure puts lots of people off visiting the Island. Comments please.Bob Morris
The municipality has had talks with the ferry providers (mostly Hellenic Seaways) in the past but their timetables are probably set in a centralized office. There are more ferries in high season but fewer at either end of it. It would probably be impossible to timetable ferries to meet all the flights that arrive at Skiathos airport on any given day.
On the subject of ‘pulling luggage’ around Skiathos, most if not all bars and restaurants in Skiathos will happily take care of your luggage (although almost uniquely, the Hellenic Seaways office refuses to allow passengers to leave theirs there) if you buy a drink or food before asking if they can look after your bags while you wander around.
It’s actually the same in many other places across the islands, where ferry timetables sometimes mean that you can only leave on a 2.30am ferry arriving at the nearest island with an airport around 4.30am, which can really put a crimp in your travel plans. Or you could find, as we observed on lovely but quiet Fourni last year, the twice-weekly ferry gets blown back out to sea by bad weather, stranding tourists there for the next three days. Our idea of heaven; not so, perhaps, if you’re expected back at work the next day.
So on the whole, while it is tedious killing time on Skiathos waiting for the next ferry, it would probably be impossible to make ferries connect with all flights arriving at Skiathos airport. Park your bags (the Meltemi cafe is a favourite of many), check out the bars or restaurants away from the tourist zone on the seafront, take a bus to Koukounaries beach, or hire a car for half a day and visit the impressive kastro at the northern tip of the island.
There is also the option of a sea taxi from Skiathos to Skopelos, expensive for individuals, less so if you can explore sharing a sea taxi with others.
a 140,000 people arrive in skiathos in the summer and we cant organise a boat to go the 5 miles so their journey time would less than if they flew to california..and now the dimos are presumably paying a marketing company to do a survey..even in the high season there are problems. this friday people have to get a 7 am boat to catch a 15.45 pm plane ..after that within an hour there are 3 boats ..all together. its not impossible.. its just necessary. if the dimos want more tourists or to make their stay better then they could organise a boat to do the short hop which would aid the islands prosperity more than anything else they could do..and its not the same on all islands.
Sorry, martin, but who is this “we”? And how does the dimos “organise a boat”, and to meet which flights?
Time was, playing hopscotch with Greek ferries was part of the fun of travelling in the Greek islands (still is, on most islands). Some hardliners even insist on seven-hour ferry journeys from Piraeus when they could get to their favourite island in half an hour by plane. It’s part of The Thing.
If people expect limousine transfer from airport to accommodation, maybe they should pony up to the luxe 600-euro-a-night hotels on Santorini or Mykonos (been there; not worth it) or perhaps consider the safer option of Center Parcs.
Butlin’s, even.
Same old comments year after year. I suggest a few of you need to get hold of economic reality. It is NOT the municipality that organises the boats, it is the ferry companies – all of them.
I like the skopelosnews comment – great deal of sense.
Personally I am happy there is a a slight difficulty in getting to and from Skopelos, otherwise it would become just like Skiathos.
Curiously there is a “non-aligned” Skiathos tour boat which ferries some people (who have booked stays at certain hotels) Skopelos to Skiathos at 7am. Though I saw it on a Saturday it goes several mornings during the week to serve clients who are brought to the port by the bus load and packed on board.
I think that the boat is named “Agios Nikolaos”.
Now you mention it, Tom, I came back from Skiathos on the Agios Nikolaos two years ago, when the non-appearing first day run of the Proteus stranded me there overnight after I took a friend to the airport for her flight home. You have to pay day-trip prices, but there’s nothing to stop holiday makers and luggage getting on one of those Mamma Mia! Trip boats here, even if it does involve some faffing around off Ayios Ioannis beach. Funnier still, I was the only non-Greek on that particular day’s excursion.
There is a huge difference between “meeting” flights (or a limo service)and having 8 hour gaps in the schedule. I am aware that many people are happy its hard for tourists to get here -it suits them. However the island relies on tourism and the people need the income. This thread is discussing dimos actions to promote tourism. My point is the best way to boost tourism is to organise better transport so journey times are not comparable to long haul destinations. Its the one thing people mention as a negative about the island. The best way to deal with it would be co-operation with the ferry companies to try an avoid scheduling nightmares.We actually phoned the head of ANES lines last year and asked if he was aware of the fact there are about 4000 people landing in Skiathos every Friday and a proportion of them would probably like to travel to Skopelos or even Alonissos. He,of course,was unaware. An attempt at co-ordination is needed.
Also unfortunately the attempts to re-start the route(with a start up company to) Thessaloniki have failed.
Not sure about that ‘He,of course,was unaware’ (unless the ‘of course’ implies he’s just another thick Greek), but if the head of ANES is unaware of how his company operates in the Northern Sporades, well, he shouldn’t be the head of ANES.
and, mart, we’re used to your ee cummings thing with lower case, but if you’re having trouble with your space bar, have some of mine
and here are some more!
no it implies that he can’t have been aware otherwise they would try and tap the market. the ferry companies don’t seem to take any heed of when are where passengers want to travel when planning routes and timetables though.. which in some way makes you think they aren’t working at peak efficiency! bit like the cafe that closes for lunch..
martinglossa pulls this out every year. Speak to the airlines. Tell them when the ferries run and to organise their schedules to fit. Speak to a few other villa owners, buy a boat and organise transport from Skiathos to Glossa. Why on earth should the municipality pay for it. The ferry companies are doing very nicely, thank you.
and will continue to until we manage to correct the poor transport links that hold back the economic development of the island. many of us have been trying to organise .. and still are. nobody has asked the dimos to pay for anything (except silly surveys and surreal logos). i thought you have said -many times- the ferry companies(at least the one you support) struggle. speaking to the airlines is frankly a bit silly.. i can imagine explaining to thomas cook that even if they would reroute all their planes then at any given moment HS would suddenly change its timetable, on a friday ,for no apparent reason-as they did this summer… Its a very simple principle of infrastructure making an island viable or not. private or public.. or private in conjuction with public are all possibilities . As you can tell by the Skyros ferry company there is always a possibility for public intervention . i tend to agree its more likely to be achieved as a private venture though. we all know you don’t want more tourists .
Hi to everyone here! No need of spies to get feed back on the outcome of the survey. The questionnaire was only one part of the survey as there are many other tools and phone interviews that will help the marketing company to give us suggestions over our island’s “branding” . The outcome of the survey will be public for everyone to see and of course comment.