207 pages, with a rich description and many photos in high resolution. This is the "gist" of the latest book Travels through Macedonia (Патувања низ Македонија) by the tourist guide Spase Manev, which focuses on tourist places in Macedonia.
To get all the information presented in the book, Manev explains to Skopje.IN that he did a lot of research and made a lot of acquaintances. It took him about a year and a half to assemble all the material, and the idea had been simmering for two to two and a half years.
"This book can offer readers many new interesting tourist places that are not very well known, but have great potential to become a major tourist attraction and attract many domestic and foreign tourists." It is important that these places that are shown in the book be known as much as possible, visited and promoted more by visitors”, Manev is determined.
Interest in the book, he says, has been surprisingly high, adding that he was surprised by the boom that occurred after the book was announced for sale.
"There is great interest in buying the book from all over the country, but there is great interest from Macedonian emigrants and foreign tourists”, Manev says.
Due to the great demand for the book in English, it will also be translated, and for its promotion, Manev announced that it will be published soon.
"I am also working on other things, but for now I will not reveal what they are and I will keep them a secret, just like with the book”, he tells Skopje.IN.
If you are a member of one of the tourist groups for Macedonia on Facebook, you must have come across the name of this tourist guide, who has created several groups, including the group „Патувања низ Македонија“ (Travels through Macedonia), which has almost 250,000 members.
According to him, such groups are a great place where you can see the beauties of Macedonia.
"The group Travels through Macedonia already has almost 250,000 members and is one of the largest Macedonian fb groups, if we also count the sales groups. Since I am a big travel lover, I decided to share my travelogues on Facebook, and to create a group like this one, but also many other travel groups. It's honestly not easy to manage such a large group, so I have help from other moderators and so far we're doing great", Manev explains.
The posts he shares in the group, he explains, are well received and there are often people who have not visited certain places, and at the same time are surprised by what Macedonia has to offer.
"So far, the posts of my travels have been positively received and after I post those places that are not very well known, people are interested in them and visit them", Manev says.
According to the tourist guide, the country's authorities are not doing enough to promote tourism in Macedonia. He explains that for domestic tourism to work well, everyone needs to work together, both the authorities and the citizens.
"First of all, the authorities should devote more attention to domestic tourism and tourist places and landmarks in Macedonia, arrange the places, put up information boards and road signs, trash cans, as well as signs so as not to pollute the environment and improve the infrastructure”, Manev says.
The tourist season usually lasts during the spring and summer months, as opposed to the colder months. According to Manev, this situation can be improved with better tourist promotion of the places that can be visited in the winter and colder months.
"Of course, it can also be some waterfalls, there are such, despite the winter weather, they can still be visited. You can visit almost the same places that can be visited in the summer, but unfortunately, those months for travel are unattractive. A plus reason is precipitation and snow in the higher places, and they may make the places unvisited", Manev says.
His message to the Macedonian citizens is that they should devote themselves more to domestic tourism, visit the places, but at the same time not throw garbage and make sure that the tourist places are not polluted.
"Instead of abroad, they should travel more through Macedonia, because we have many undiscovered places that are still waiting to become a tourist attraction”, Manev is decisive.