Last Autumn I participated in a fantastic, practical training course in the Dolomites: the Winter Academy on the management of tourism in natural sites. I was one of 25 international tourism and conservation professionals selected for the first edition of the Winter Academy (I wrote about it here).

This Autumn I am one of the tutors for the second edition, leading the group work for four weeks from mid Oct till mid Nov 2020.

This year, The Future of Tourism in Natural Areas – Tour.Nat is online and free but based again on a strict selection of applicants who already work in tourism and conservation. The theme of Tour.Nat is tourism management in natural and protected areas: how to design and govern it for the benefit of local people and the environment, how to make it more balanced, how to reshape the experiences, how to govern and manage the visitors’ flows, how to minimise the negative impacts, how to manage the relationship with local communities and other nature stakeholders. And, last but not least, how to COMMUNICATE about it to a variety of stakeholders across various communications channels, telling an engaging story and building long-lasting partnerships.

We will be discussing all these issues with a range of participants from all over the word, from different sectors – academia, business, public sector, NGOs – related to tourism and nature conservation.

I look forward to meeting the participants, to tutoring, to the exchange of ideas, knowledge and expertise, to the group work as well as the plenary sessions. But most of all, I look forward to learning and sharing in a creative, stimulating, inspiring and fun environment, for the benefit of our natural environment.

The project is developed by the OECD Trento Centre for Local Development and tsm – Trentino School of Management, in collaboration with the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) Tourism Committee.The rationale, main aims and expected outcomes of Tour.Nat can be found here.