The tourist office of alternative & sports tourism ‘Salonica View’ was created in 2019 in Thessaloniki initially as a sports and entertainment education company.
In September 2020, it was awarded as the most innovative and up-and-coming company in the category "Best outdoor fitness events" by the nationwide fitness award competition which was held in Athens. In June 2021, Salonica View was licensed, acquired the tourism label as provided by the Greek constitution, and officially became a member of the Greek National Tourism Organization (GNTO). Our tourist office organizes tours and hikes in the mountains, rafting, horseback riding, and boating on lakes and rivers in Greece in Cyprus, and abroad. Along with organized sports activities, it offers fitness services in groups, semi-personal training, and personal training in outdoor areas, such as parks, but also in indoor areas in Greece and Cyprus.
The idea of Salonica View was created by Andreas Tsaggaris in 2017. Andreas was in his third year of studies as a post-graduate student in the Faculty of Physical Education & Sport Science at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He was a restless young man with big concern about his future. As he wanted to present a few sports programs, but also, a few short videos from his personal training to his trainees, he created a Facebook page, Salonica View (https://www.facebook.com/Salonica-View-243983299403555/ ). The name that he gave to his page was not a random one, since Andreas was living in the area of 40 Churches in Thessaloniki, which is very close to the zoo and he had a whole view of Thessaloniki. According to him, the ‘Salonica’ symbolizes the city, not only Thessaloniki but every city, its everyday life, its difficulty of coexistence among the population masses at the same place, the difficulties of moving around, the exhaust fumes, and all the problems that exist in metropolitan centers. On the other hand, the ‘View’, which in Greek means view (?), symbolizes the other point of view from which you can see the everyday life of the non-urban areas, which are a little bit far from the city. For example, a walk or lightsome jogging in a forest in the suburbs of Thessaloniki or in another park would be a thousand times better than every stress relief pill in the world. The need, then, of the world to get away from ‘labyrinths’, that hide the cities and to see from another perspective the reality is big.
In the same year, Andreas sighed up in the self-defense school, which every year organizes the Hellenic Rescue Team. Through this school, he learned First-Aid, among other useful information about the mountain and the liquid element. The magic of greek nature and the adrenaline that these activities have offered drove him to love the area of alternative sports in nature. At the begging of 2018, he makes his first event through his page at the forest in the suburbs of Thessaloniki with 11 participants. Followed one more event in Cyprus, at the path of Aphrodite, with 70 participants. Seeing that there is interest, Andreas wanting to learning more about organising sports event, but also to improve the services of Salonica View, chose the major of outdoors activities and sports tourism at the F. P. E. S. S., with major supervisor Mrs. Eleni Glynia. Through this major he learnt the different kind of protocols that someone should follow for the organising of sports events, the ways of roles’ setting in a group, ways of bonding of the team with meeting games, and contacted with outdoors activities which are new in the areas or may have not been well-known yet, as the S.U.P..
In 2019, Salonica View hosted the first sports event at Tsoumerka.
This sports deal package included transportation from Thessaloniki, rafting at Tsoumerka and food in a local tavern. In this particular event the participants reached the number of 60. Seeing Andreas that his ideas as well as his efforts were not lost, on the contrary have a major reception, the summer of 2019 went ot Phodes to work as life guard and to hoarded a amount of money in order to create officially, his own outdoors activities agency. In Rhodes though, was also very active, as through his page in the evenings after his work was hosting a few event, such as circular training at the beach. In the mid-July, when(?) he started looking for an office for the creation of his business. Eventually, even though he was in Rhodes, he rent his own office at the center of Thessaloniki, very close to Aristotle’s square. Despite the bureaucratic difficulties which he faced, in the mid-September of 2019, the official start of Salonica View as a business in the outdoors activities area was reality.
