COVER STORY
full, and we would leave to go home. We would
be up on the trailer on some corner and had to
be careful not to sit on the apples. That was a
rule if we wanted a lift on the tractor’s trailer.
Coming back, we would meet a lot of tractors
from the orchards and as we would pass them
we would “borrow” an apple from them. What
an adventure this was for us. Everybody was
unloading the full boxes and filling out the trailers
with empty boxes so they would be ready for
the next morning. This was our routine every
day for a month. The smell of the apples was all
around Prespa. It was the same in every village,
not just in Carev Dvor, and to be honest it still
is. You’ve got to love Prespa in the autumn! I
don’t know if the kids still experience the apple
harvest period the same as we did 25 years ago.
A hope they do because these are one of the
best memories I have from my childhood and
this is one of the reasons I started to host the
Apple Harvest events.
Development and Start of the Rural Agro-
Tourism in Prespa
The main income of the inhabitants Prespa
comes from agriculture, most importantly from
the production and distribution of apples. We
aim to put Prespa on the map of rural agro-
tourism. This will strengthen the regional rural
economy with the promotion of tourism and
regional cooperation. Our event, being one of its
kind in Prespa region, will act as the first initiative
to attracting visitors to the region. Agriculture is
what we know best, and we hope in the coming
years our event will be connected with other
events in the region. Guests have the possibility
to visit Prespa, to be farmers for a day and try
traditional food and drinks. The more visitors
come to Prespa, the stronger the impact on our
local community and economy.
This is one example on how we can develop rural
agro - tourism through a personal initiative. We
hope it will snowball, inspiring and encouraging
others to come up with their own initiatives, to
create a chain of attractions in the area.
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EMERGING MACEDONIA