Training - Biodiversity Based Tourism Product Development

UNWTO Training Course on “Biodiversity Based Tourism Product Development”
Headquarters, Madrid 5-7 July 2011


The Training Course on Biodiversity Based Tourism Product Development was organized by the UNWTO Consulting Unit on Tourism and Biodiversity Bonn and Headquarters Madrid. The course lasted three days and consisted of theoretical lectures, practical exercises (working groups) and a technical visit to the National Park ”Monfragüe”. This visit was organized in cooperation with the Spanish Tourism Environmental Authorities.

Objectives:

The primary goal of the course was to give participants an understanding of the topic Biodiversity Tourism Based Product Development and to improve the knowledge and discuss biodiversity related tourism products in protected areas, using the example of the National Park “Monfragüe”. This training course had the objectives to transfer knowledge on:

  • How to harmonize tourism development and conservation with sustainable use of biological diversity,
  • How to increase local participation in tourism development, in particular in ecologically, socially and economically sensitive areas,
  • How to design and market biodiversity based tourism products,
  • How the tourism sector at the local level can contribute to mitigation of Green House Gases (GHG) and adapt to climate change impacts.

Target group:

The target group of the training course was primarily members of UNWTO.  In total, eighteen people participated in the workshop, which included ten members from Bhutan, Cameroon, Chad, Cyprus, Iraq, Madagascar, Morocco, Nigeria, Seychelles and Uruguay.

An additional eight participants were from the private tourism sector, from universities and independent experts in the field of sustainable tourism.

Results:

The content of the training course includes the following:

  • CBD Guidelines
  • Management planning for sustainable tourism development
  • Approaches of stakeholder involvement
  • SWOT Analysis
  • Promoting and marketing tourism
  • Tourism product development