This article forms part of a series of publications under MEDUSA project to promote less-known natural and cultural touristic assets in our partner territories Jordan, Lebanon, Tunisia, Puglia (Italy) and Catalonia (Spain).

Enjoy reading and hope to welcome you soon at one of the wonderful places you will get to know here.

A workshop on tourism business planning, international sales & marketing, and market access was held in Puglia organized by Regione Puglia, MEDUSA partner in Puglia, offering a total of 15 hours of training, to the group of nine short-listed applicants from the first-phase approved concept notes of the Mediterranean sub-grant adventure tourism competition.

Annamaria Annicchiarico, who was appointed by the Tourism Department, lead the training sessions emphasizing three topics. Firstly, business planning with emphasis on social responsibility, including community support and heritage conservation, secondly, collaborative strategies and partnerships to increase marketing reach and sales leads, last but not least standards and certifications that can help SMEs stand out from their competitors and enhance their credibility. All the operators had considerable experience in the field of tourism as well as Adventure Tourism, and they all paid much attention to sustainability.

Concrete examples were studied, such as adventure tourism package website and sales strategies from different parts of the world, in order to draw inspiration and recommendations from them. The internationality of the activity added to the fascination as many unknown extremely distant destinations and attractions were gained exposure. In addition, a great focus was given to collaboration: “We introduces the concept of networking between participants who are also competitors working in the same market” said Annicchiarico as she mentioned that the training encouraged operators to get to know each other and build alliances to offer a more complete and satisfactory final product. Another important aspect of the training was safety, which is basic for this type of tourism and especially due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, there is always room for improvement. The training has shown that, often, operators ignore the benefits of intelligent and collective work tools. For example, sometimes the tourism activity is limited to few elements (territorial characteristics, history, or habits etc.) instead of benefiting from the appeal of the system as a whole. Finally, some expenses cannot be faced alone, “Communication and social media management are much more affordable if organized together with others who have similar needs” Annicchiarico expressed.