"How to set a hıgh qualıty strategy" for rural tourısm | Pilot sessions experience - Turkey

The "How to set a hıgh qualıty strategy" for rural tourısm course aimed to promote awareness of investing in a strategy to promote rural tourism since it has a major role in the economy and economic growth of a region, create a specific and innovative tool for developing such a strategy and demonstrate the advantages of working inside and with a network.

Below we would like to share to you the pilot experiences in each of the partner countries. 

Turkey

​On May 31 - June 2, 2023, the pilot sessions started online, then on June 3, 2023, the pilot project learning was completed with a face-to-face session, and the participants were asked to take time to review the modules and give feedback until June 7th in Istanbul, Türkiye . A total of 40 hours face-to-face and 80 hours online were targeted with pilot participants. Instructor was Prof.Dr. Sahure Gonca Telli from K-GEM.

The sessions were attended by 8 participants: 

• 5 lecturers in Okan (1), Rumeli (1), Yeditepe(1) and Doğuş(2) Universities in Istanbul,
• 2 private sector employees, one in a project firm, the other an architect and
• 1 university student.

The modules in which entrepreneurship and financial issues were shared attracted great interest from the students. Students also noted the importance of case studies. Case studies have been seen as a really good option and the right approach to understand the details.
 
​After the training we asked an open ended survey about the participants final thoughts on Escape 2 Project.

• What did this pilot project bring you?
• How did it affect your level of knowledge regarding rural tourism development?
• How do you think this project will contribute when it is presented to the masses?
• What do you think about the level of information on the subject?

Here are some thoughts and feedbacks:

Rural tourism was a subject that interested me a lot and I had limited knowledge about it. Thanks to the project, I gained very valuable information. Today, like everything else, the form of tourism has changed. In this context, rural tourism has a very important potential especially for the development of our country. The information given in the project was quite sufficient. Considering the potential in our country, it is obvious that when the project is presented to large masses, it will create significant employment in rural areas.

I think that the pilot project adds depth to the subject. It has increased my wealth of knowledge on rural tourism development. I think it will increase export sales as well as help people communicate. It was a very comprehensive information on the subject.

The Escape 2 project is distinguished by seeing all the steps that entrepreneurs need to follow for rural development goals and supporting them with real-life studies. With the pilot project, it was the biggest gain for me to learn about rural tourism studies, especially in the countries that are members of the consortium. It increased my knowledge of rural tourism development and consolidated my knowledge in a holistic way.

The biggest contribution of this project to me was to reduce the fear that prevented me from being an entrepreneur. I also feel more knowledgeable about rural tourism. I understood what kind of framework one should look at in order to realize a project on rural tourism. I am sure that presenting the project to large masses will help people to be informed about rural tourism. The subject was easy to understand and very informative thanks to both examples and an explanatory explanation.

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