The University of Algarve is part of the BEST MED project – Beyond European Sustainable Tourism Med Path, part of Priority Axis 4: Enhancing Mediterranean Governance, which «aims to project the governance of the Mediterranean in relation to responsible, inclusive and sustainable tourism development, establishing an ideal framework for the creation of better communication channels between the involved actors».
As UAlg explains, “Best Med's great challenge is to find ways to alleviate seasonality and reduce processes related to the lack of cooperation between tourism actors in the MED area, including the active participation of resident communities in terms of the design of policies, promoting the creation of sustainable destinations at European level'.
The project, approved in October 2019, has a budget of almost 3 million euros and will run until June 2022.
The initiative, coordinated by Fundación Público Andaluza El Legado Andalusí (Spain), has 11 partners from nine countries: Spain, Italy, Greece, Slovenia, Croatia, France, Malta, Montenegro and Portugal.
The UAlg team is led by Cláudia Ribeiro de Almeida (ESGHT) and also includes Alexandra Rodrigues Gonçalves (ESGHT), Elsa Pereira (Higher School of Education and Communication), Marisa Cesário (Faculty of Economics), Íris Lopes (Faculty of Economics) and Margarida Mascarenhas (Faculty of Human Motricity, University of Lisbon), researchers at the Center for Research in Tourism, Sustainability and Well-Being (CinTurs).
This team will be responsible for one of the «basic tasks of the project: testing a set of activities related to the development of cultural routes that allow tourists to visit and stay in inland areas and, in this way, enhance the existing natural and cultural heritage».
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