INTERNATIONAL BENCHMARK STUDY ON ADVENTURE TOURISM

COUNTRY: Spain, Tunisia, Jordan, Italy, Lebanon

CLIENT:
EU funded ENI CBC – Cooperation across borders in the Mediterranean; MEDUSA – Development and promotion of Mediterranean Sustainable Adventure Tourism

PROJECT TITLE:
Concept on Study on Identification and Analysis of Sustainable Innovative Practices of Adventure Tourism

SHORT DESCRIPTION

Background
The Mediterranean region is one of the world’s leading tourist destinations. Facing growing competition and deterioration of the political and security situation, the destination has demonstrated symptoms of a slowdown, which makes the recovery of the sector an economic priority. This slowdown has been dramatically reinforced by the COVID-19 crisis and its economic impact and may also present an opportunity to transform the tourism model into a sustainable and competitive one, addressing current sectorial challenges such as the predominance of mass seaside tourism, dependency on the European market, and territorial imbalances. Five countries (1) Spain,(2) Jordan,(3) Lebanon, (4) Tunisia, and (5) Italy and strong partners from those countries have joined forces to launch the MEDUSA project "Development and Promotion of Mediterranean Sustainable Adventure Tourism”. Within the framework of this project an international benchmark study on adventure tourism has been commissioned to identify and provide insight into innovative sustainable adventure and sustainable tourism practices (tourism models, products and services) practiced by and in tourism destinations including destinations in the MED region and elsewhere in the world.

Project Aim

The focus of the study was to identify the most sustainable practices generating a broad range of benefits for the local communities and tourism stakeholders.

Services Provided

AGEG Tourism for Sustainability Consulting provided the following services:

Development of a benchmarking model and “sustainability check”
Destinations, initiatives, and local tourism providers all around the globe were scanned and 45 sustainable practices were identified and further elaborated.
Comparative analyse between the identified sustainable innovative practices on the AT segment.
Development recommendations and actions to upgrade and develop the adventure tourism sector in the Mediterranean region.
Development of a comprehensive, illustrated benchmark study, incorporating 45 handpicked and assessed (sustainability check) practices
Production of an executive summary video