Good practice:

A trip around the history of the city with OASTH’s Cultural Route Bus (50)

On September 2009, OASTH, with respect to the historical and cultural richness of Thessaloniki, created and operates the "Cultural Line", which starts from the White Tower and travels 50 minutes per hour, provides to the passengers, through the projected, through the telematics, audiovisual material (in Greek and English language), but also of the information forms (also in Greek and English), acquaintance services with historical and cultural monuments of Thessaloniki.
The specially equipped and externally invested visual bus, the Companions who willingly and politely distribute the information forms and provide additional information to each passenger, contribute significantly to the best possible services to the citizens and visitors of Thessaloniki.
The route in the "History of Thessaloniki", with stops in its numerous historical monuments, which reflect its long history, from ancient, Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine times until today. Besides, the city is characterized by multiculturalism, due to the multinationality of its inhabitants over the centuries.
The service is free for people with disabilities.
Intermodality is also promoted, since the route passes from the Port and the Karavakia Thessaloniki Waterbus stops, while the route can be linked with walking and cycling routes.

It is estimated that each trip of Route 50 costs to OASTH 53,5€. In the high tourist season (June-Sept) 14 trips are taking place daily, meaning a cost of 749€, while in the low tourist season (Oct-May) the cost decreses to 428€ (8 trips/day). Estimated annual cost of almost 195.500€.

The Route 50, gave the opportunity to tourists and visitors of Thessaloniki to visit 17 significant monuments and sites of the city within an hour by using the public transportation. The bus have a capacity of 55 seats, meaning that can serve 770 people during a typical day of the high tourist season and more than 200.000 visitors annualy. Having those visitors using the service instead of using individual means of transport during their stay in the city, is a great achievment.

Intermodality enhancement with the operation of the under construction Thessaloniki metro and the planned Urban Sea Transportation system.
Also the shifting of the buses to low-carbon technologies.

During the kick-off meeting of the Interreg Europe DESTI-SMART project (September 2018), the lead partner, Major Development Agency Thessaloniki SA, while hosting the meeting, arranged a City tour with the specific line, in view to share this good practice with the rest of the project partners, representing mass tourism destinations. The pleasant experience for the visitor and the aims of promoting efficient sustainable tourism and intermodality were recognised by the whole partnership.