As DestiMED PLUS project partners, IUCN Med is currently coordinating and supporting the delivery of an Online Training Programme for Pilot Actions. The purpose of the training is to train the 9 Pilot Actions involved in the project on the following topics, Local Ecotourism Cluster Development and Governance, Ecotourism Product Development and finally the MEET and DestiMED Standard for Ecotourism and Monitoring activities, such as data collection, for the measurement of ecological footprint, socio-economic, governance and conservation indicators within the ecotourism products being developed for the project.

 This training programme, comprised of three modules, was originally planned as a 2 day face-to-face training in May 2020, however due to travel limitations imposed by COVID-19, DestiMED PLUS project partners decided to carry out the training online instead. Despite, the initial administrative challenges caused by this change in project activities, it was quickly realised by the project partners that doing the training online was an opportunity to provide the pilot actions with a more in-depth and comprehensive learning experience that would be delivered over the course of 4 months (June - September), instead of 2 days. Furthermore, as the training has been delivered online there has also been the opportunity for more guest speakers to partake from around the Mediterranean and beyond, including Elton Caushi from Albanian Trip and Richard Edwards from Book Green Travel.

To date, the training has been a success with great feedback from the pilot action trainees. A further, final update will be available at the end of the training in September.