Our involvement in producing a holistic strategy to shape tourism development, management and marketing on the stunning island of Syros was completed earlier this summer (2022). We spent approximately ten months building up a detailed picture of Syros’ tourism performance and the main tourism-related issues that the island faces, as well as achieving stakeholder consensus and drafting the strategy in close cooperation with the Municipality of Syros-Ermoupolis. 

A great deal of that work in the first months of 2022 focused on consecutive rounds of public consultation, strategy refinement and visual identity improvements based on feedback collected from local councillors, tourism associations, entrepreneurs and residents. We also had the opportunity to present the full range of strategic recommendations and actions along with brand manual guidelines during a series of six online workshops in June 2022.

We’re glad to know that the strategy has left a lasting legacy with important milestones already achieved so far and more expectations for the years to come in terms of: 

• Promoting a sustainable approach to tourism development
• Nurturing a diverse range of experiences
• Adapting best practices to drive economic regeneration through tourism 
• Attracting those target groups that will offer greatest value and contribute most in terms of the island’s sustainability goals.

For the next twelve months, we’re going to get the strategy implementation moving by supporting the delivery of a comprehensive action plan that includes  30+ actions over a 3-year period (2023-2025).

What are we doing?

• Supporting the Municipality of Syros-Ermoupolis in defining project specifications and identifying those partners that will provide high quality work on the delivery of different actions
  
  
• Ensuring that the delivery of actions is fully aligned with the strategy’s goals (e.g. the execution of the new visual identity will be consistent with the Brand Manual’s guidelines)
  
  
• Informing a series of influential stakeholders beyond the boundaries of the island of Syros (e.g. the Greek Ministry of Tourism, the National Tourism Organisation, the Region of Southern Aegean) about the island’s recent progress on strategy planning and implementation  
  
  
• Engaging with local stakeholders on a monthly basis to keep them informed and collect their feedback about scheduled activities and ongoing results
  
  
• Monitoring progress on strategy implementation and publish reports, including descriptions of operational support activities and results of KPIs, as well as media press releases on a monthly basis