BETSA PROJECT- IPA CROSS-BORDER COOPERATION

PROGRAMME CROATIA – MONTENEGRO

BETSA trainings for local tourism development stakeholders

The overall objective of the project „Bird-watching and eco-tourism in South Adriatic” (BETSA) was to support tourism development stakeholders in the areas of bird-watching, wild life and related eco-tourism offer, targeting specific domestic and international tourist segments, to better satisfy birders and other eco/educational tourists arriving to the South Adriatic for that purpose and thus improved their income generation ability.

Our team included experienced experts from the fields of eco-tourism, marketing and design, wild food and birdwatching tourism. This was be combined with the practical skills of training providers in the field of tourism initiatives development, market communication and entrepreneurship training.

Custom made training of the network members were organized in the form of interactive workshops, where the participants, under the guidance of our experts, further developed and upgraded their offer, to be yet more attractive and harmonized with tourism trends and their individual goals.

Participative approach provided the participants better results, comparing to classical trainings. Network members were actively involved into solution development, integrating the learning by doing approach. Value added of this approach was also the development of the team spirit with the initiatives, peer learning and best practice exchange. The experts took the role of facilitators, shared their knowledge and expertise, and through the active participation of the network members leaded them towards the desired solution development.

Conduction of five three-day trainings for tourism development stakeholders contributed and improved capacity for high quality tourism service provision.

Following topic were covered:

Training “Leave no trace”

Mount Orjen, Trainers: Biljana Medenica, Ružica Stanković, 24. – 26. june 2016

Participants of the workshop during the training were thaught basic about the 7 principles. Each principle was followed by demonstrative/practical exercise through which participants themselves came to a conclusion or a solution. Each principle was followed by at least two demonstrative/ practical exercises which we consider is crucial for acquiring of knowledge. The main objective of the workshop was that knowledge gained in the training participants can pass on to practice.

Introductory training about bird-watching tourism potentials

Orjen area, Trainer: Rok Rozman, 05. – 07. September 2016

Main focus was given to the fact that birdwatching guide should share his/her knowledge to guests in a creative and innovative manner that adjusts considering to the type of the guest. Since birdwatching activities promote sustainable usage of resources the birdwatching trips should always combine more than just ornithology; they should consist also basic information about the region, the traditional way of life in the region and inform guests about how they can contribute or get involved into the current nature conservation projects…

Introductory training about bird-watching tourism potentials

Tivat area, Trainer: Rok Rozman, 07. – 09. September 2016

Main focus was given to the fact that birdwatching guide should share his/her knowledge to guests in a creative and innovative manner that adjusts considering to the type of the guest. Since birdwatching activities promote sustainable usage of resources the birdwatching trips should always combine more than just ornithology; they should consist also basic information about the region, the traditional way of life in the region and inform guests about how they can contribute or get involved into the current nature conservation projects…

Integration of wild food into the tourism culinary offer of South Adriatic

Orjen area, Trainer: Sani Sardelić, 07. – 09. October 2016

The aim of the training is introduction to wild plant species present on Orjen area, modes of their collection and use in coolinary and improvement of touristic coolinary offer of Boka kotorska area.

The view on the natural edible herbs has been changing and today it could be called fashionable, even fancy and expensive food, not every day food or the food for the poor, as it used to be during the history. In this inverted view there is a further reason why special notice should be taken of this kind of herbs, having in mind that the placement of potential workshops for tourists in a future should consider the environment; biodiversity and ecological conditions.

Training in modern marketing and market communication in eco tourism

Herceg Novi & Tivat, Trainer: Urška Bratkovič, 18. – 20. October 2016

The aim of the training is introduction with effective methods of marketing in tourism, how to promote services, communicate with clients and how to create recognizable brand. Main focus was given to the fact that there are many marketing tools in the world of new media which are important for success. Registered participants have had individual mentoring during the training related to the type of the services which they perform, through analysis and recommendations of their materials (website, pages on social networks, promotional materials such as lefleats, brochures etc.).