The Best MED project, which is implemented by the Ministry of Tourism under the Transnational Program of European Territorial Cooperation “INTERREG MEDITERRANEAN 2014-2020”, in cooperation with eleven organizations from eight countries, is successfully advancing to its final phase.
For the pilot implementation of the model of Sustainable Management of Cultural Routes, the cultural path, Kardamili-Petrovouni-Exochori-Agia Sofia-Kardamili, was selected in West Mani, in collaboration with the management body “The Olive Roads”.
As part of the project, two online participatory workshops (Policy Learning Seminars) and a focused online discussion (Focus Group) with the participation of all public stakeholders involved in local tourism development took place during the testing phase of the sustainable cultural path management model. and the private sector.
During the month of October, the Ministry of Tourism organized additional activities in the selected area of Messinia and specifically, a familiarization trip (Fam Trip) on October 23, 2021 in the area of the cultural path of Kardamili, West Mani and an event in the form of Dynamic Participatory Laboratory ( ) in Kalamata on October 24, 2021.
The actions of the Ministry of Tourism were actively attended by representatives of all involved local bodies such as the Region, the municipalities involved, outdoor entrepreneurs, travel agents, the Chamber of Commerce, the Ministry of Culture – Ephorate of Antiquities of Messinia, hoteliers etc. focused on setting up a management body for hiking and cultural trails, synergies between them for data collection as well as setting priorities based on the goals for the sustainable development of tourism throughout the region, jointly creating an action plan.
On November 24 & 25, 2021, the Ministry of Tourism held a two-day online training seminar on “Development and management of cultural routes” in the context of strengthening the skills of representatives and executives of policy makers, representatives of local and regional stakeholders and experts. active in tourism to provide knowledge about cultural routes as an innovative product that serves the development of sustainable tourism.
The training material will be translated into six languages for the respective project partners and will be available on the project website
The significant results of the actions of the Ministry of Tourism and the good implementation of the model of sustainable management of the cultural hiking trail of Kardamili, were discussed, among others, on Wednesday, December 1, 2021, at the Joint Seminar at the hotel “Great Britain” in Athens on ” BEST MED & SMARTMED: “Exchange of good practices and creation of synergies” in which the partners of all Interreg transnational strategic programs participated.
During the seminar, the importance of the active involvement of stakeholders, local businesses in the tourism sector and the consolidation of constructive cooperation between professionals was stressed.
The necessary new skills and knowledge that professionals in the tourism industry need to acquire, as well as the key role of technology, in the light of the effects of the pandemic in particular, were put at the center of the “Joint Seminar”.
The “bet” of smart cities and the zero-carbon cities, the so-called “zero cities”, was, finally, an important field of discussion with proposals for the establishment of nodes (hubs) of “smart tourism”, implementation of communication actions and promotion and expansion of cooperation stakeholders through a dedicated digital platform.
On December 16, 2021 the Ministry of Tourism participated in the hybrid event organized by Lazio region of Italy with the object of developing a network of sustainable tourism observatories and presented the actions for the establishment of the Research and Monitoring Center for Coastal and Maritime Tourism in the Eastern Mediterranean in collaboration with the World Tourism Organization.
The BEST MED project is implemented within the Interreg Med by eight Mediterranean countries (Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Greece and Montenegro) with the general aim of strengthening governance in the Mediterranean and addressing the main challenges in tourism, such as seasonality and lack of effective cooperation between stakeholders.
The project seeks to meet the challenges in the cross-border region of the Mediterranean by contributing to the development of an intelligent, participatory and sustainable model of tourism development.
The BEST MED project develops and tests the model of sustainable cultural routes in order to improve the management of cultural routes and trails and to assess their level of sustainability using a set of criteria and indicators.
A network of Mediterranean Tourism Observatories (MED NTOs) will also be set up to facilitate the exchange of data and best practices.
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Source From: Capital
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