On the 28th of October 2020 the MEET Network Secretariat hosted a public-facing webinar to announce the launch of its new online course on ecotourism product development in Mediterranean Protected Areas.
The course is made of two modules and is primarily directed at Protected Area staff interested in ecotourism development for their destination, but is also highly relevant to other stakeholders in the tourism and conservation sectors i.e. tourism boards, tour operators, sustainable tourism associations etc. The first module is on how to develop an ecotourism product following MEET´s tried and tested methodology, and the second on how to use the MEET DestiMED Calculator to measure the ecological footprint of the ecotourism product. The course is free and can be accessed by creating an account on www.conservationtraining.org and searching for ´MEET Network´.
The course, made possible by a Learning Grant from the MAVA Foundation for Nature, brings together MEET´s developed experiences from previous project´s such as ENI CBC MEET project and Interreg-Med DestiMED project, and was developed in partnership with IUCN Mediterranean and the Global Footprint Network, with support from the Travel Foundation and the Nature Conservancy´s e-learning platform, Conservation Training.
To celebrate the course launch, MEET Network hosted a webinar attended by eighty participants from Mediterranean tourism and conservation sectors. MEET also took the opportunity of the webinar to explain its objectives as a membership association for Mediterranean Protected Areas, as well as, current project´s it is involved in such as, Interreg-Med project DestiMED PLUS. Not to mention, the Network´s new MEET Ambassador Initiative – more on this coming soon!
¨Actively transforming ecotourism into a viable alternative for the Mediterranean region¨ - MEET Network
If you didn´t get an opportunity to attend the webinar you can find the live recording on MEET´s YouTube channel here, as well as, the webinar slides on the Network´s LinkedIn page.