A map of joint tourist route between Bulgaria's Plovdiv, Turkey's Edirne and North Macedonia's Skopje is being prepared

The creation of joint promotional packages and tourist routes between Bulgaria, Turkey and North Macedonia is being prepared by tourist organizations from the three countries.

The initiative is part of an international project aimed at bringing the neighbouring countries closer together and exploring their similar history, traditions and cultures.

The Matka Canyon and the Kalinka juice are just a small part of the tourist attractions that our neighbours from Skopje are using to grab the attention of their visitors.

In the central part of the Macedonian capital Skopje, the many monuments, the several bridges over the Vardar River, the fountains and, of course, the different architectural styles on the buildings around certainly make an impression.

This and other routes from Skopje, Plovdiv and Adrianople could soon become part of a joint tourist product to be offered to tour operators from Bulgaria, Turkey and North Macedonia in order to attract even greater visitor flows.

"For our countries, the Balkans, it is good to know each other, because we are more motivated to go far away, to see super famous tourist places, and we don't know the places in our area - the Balkans," says Lucia Veleva, chairwoman of the Courage Foundation-Plovdiv.

"We do have many things in common, but very often we can't identify them, simply because we don't know them," says Radost Ivanova, executive director of the Thracian Tourist Region.

For this purpose, specialists from different fields visit the three countries. Among them is Yamur Irem, a student from the Thracian University in Edirne who is studying Bulgarian.

"This is the archaeological museum. I really like it here - in Skopje. This is my first visit. We are here for five days on the Erasmus programme. We see interesting sights and people, just like when we were in Bulgaria. It's nice that we can get to know and then promote the culture and traditions of our neighbours," says the student.

On European Street, as they now call the main part of the old market square in Skopje, you can find Tako Mako, which attracts tourists with freshly squeezed kalinka juice. He tells us that it is actually pomegranate juice. Tako Mako claims that the elixir is full of vitamins and is a favourite drink for tourists because it is absolutely natural.

Tourists can see Kursumli An - an Ottoman caravanserai located in the Old Town of Skopje, in the area of Museum of Macedonia.

Before coming to Skopje, the participants of the “See and Hear” project visited Bulgaia’s Plovdiv and Stara Zagora. There, Bulgarian tourism experts have challenged them to discover some of the attractions and symbolic landmarks. Their next stop is Edirne.

"For example, to find some of the inscriptions in the Ancient Theatre, to guess what is written, when the stadium was built, what it was used for. Through the method of games, we made them discover basic things about the sights in the city. We told them what the local population ate in antiquity, what clothes they wore. It was really very interesting and everyone really enjoyed, while learning things about the past.

The partners, who came from Turkey and North Macedonia to Plovdiv, were amazed by what Plovdiv can present," said the executive director of the Thracian Tourist Region.

Greece is also to be involved in joint initiatives with Plovdiv and Edirne.