Ministry of Tourism – Project Best MED In the final phase

The Best MED project, which is implemented by the Ministry of Tourism in the framework of the Transnational Program of European Territorial Cooperation “INTERREG MEDITERRANEAN 2014-2020”, in cooperation with eleven organizations from eight countries, is successfully moving towards 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 “The Olive Roads” managing authority.

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 participations in the action

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.

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.