Aspromonte
National Park
The ADAPT intervention was addressed to the sustainable tourism sector, for in the area there are cooperatives and young individual operators that started a few years ago an activity of green tourism based upon various forms of hospitality in collaboration with the WWF. The beginning of this activity was spontaneous and, to a certain extent, even improvised. Therefore, the network of operators already existing needed to become more professional, to be updated and strengthened to improve the reception of tourist flows already existing in the area.

Description of the
intervention and
of training courses
The course was structured in four stages:

• The first stage in the classroom aiming at finding out the participants’ expectations and their training needs.
• The second stage on the field to discover the area and its environmental heritage, the various aspects related to tourist reception and hospitality in the villages and towns in the area.
• The third stage on the field with a direct reading of the successful examples already existing in the area (training session in a holiday farm which is a member of the Widespread Hospitality network).
• The fourth stage in the classroom to design a program of initiatives and events to implement in the area.

The consequences
The course participants who were members of the cooperative "San Leo" decided to purchase a structure in the village of Bova to offer board services for excursionist groups.
The participants from the cooperative "Il Faro" decided to review the internal organization of their cooperative and look for sleeping accommodations in the village of Palizzi to try to start the Widespread Hospitality network. The Hellenistic handicraft cooperative "To Argalio" prepared a set of handicraft products for an exhibition during the ethnic-musical Festival "Paleriza" organized in the Greek-speaking area during the month of August and sponsored by the EU initiative ADAPT. The participants from the Hellenistic association "Jalo Tu Vua" designed and elaborated two interesting projects during the course. One of them aimed at strengthening the selling of handicraft products of the cooperative "To Argalio" to Greece; the other project aimed at creating a network of producers of local wine, using also a quality label as a tool and organizing a network of wine-tasting places all over the Greek-speaking area. The final result of the training courses was the design, organization and implementation of an event by all the participants. Its title was "The return of the donkey", taking place in Amendolea on May 17th. This event will be proposed again next year.

Aspromonte