A OnTour working group – owners of tourism enterprises in South Tyrol, Pongau and Friuli Venezia Giulia, as well as the actual project partners - has recently taken part to a site visit in Tarvisio, a border land crossing Austria, Italy and Slovenia, where it collected several inputs on "sustainable tourism”.
During the workshop held in the idyllic "Malga Priu", the participants discussed with Francesco Marangon (professor at the University of Udine), Francesca Bonemazzi and Stefania Del Frate (experts from the Environmental Agency Friuli Venezia Giulia) and Bruno Bertero (Marketing Director of "PromoTurismo Friuli Venezia Giulia").
The main points emerged during the discussion include the role of sustainability labels in the tourism sector (e.g. EcoLabel) and the challenge of creating a market for the unique alpine landscape, even if natural goods have no monetary value. Last but not least, the importance of a regionally uniform marketing strategy for sustainable tourism.
As one of the main strengths of the project is to exchange knowledge between the project areas, participants did not miss the chance to visit the "tree houses" with their characteristic "pine-cone" shape and have a direct experience of forest bathing.