Sardinia for year-round island tourism

(ANSA) - Rome, March 27 - A project titled "Sardinia Tourism Call 2 Action" aims to generate new reasons to visit the island of Sardinia, along with defining new products for tourism and strengthening the competitiveness of already existing ones in a way that promotes year-round island tourism.
    The initiative, which is supported by the Regional Tourism Department and organised by Geasar, the company that manages the Olbia airport, consists of six events of three days each, the first of which will take place from April 4-6 at the Olbia Airport conference centre.
    The seminars will be tied to in-depth explorations of specific European markets of reference for Sardinia.
    The first day, on April 4, will be focused on "village tourism", and includes a technical round table discussion as well as an "analysis of the French market", which is the second-largest for the island's tourism and has experienced consistent growth over the past four years.
    The main objective will be to better understand the demands of French tourists, including the dynamics of choice, purchasing decisions, and the type of tourism products desired by the French market.
    The second day, April 5, will focus on a theme-based conference with institutions and international operators in the tourism sector, to define regional strategies on the topic of "authentic villages", possibly by establishing a Sardinian registry.
    The third day will be an experiential day with an educational tour for sector operators, experts and journalists of the island's evocative tourism destinations.
    The remaining five theme-based events will be spread throughout the year: cultural and archaeological tourism (May 23-25 with an analysis of the Chinese market); food and wine (June 20-22 with an analysis of the Dutch market); sailing and golf (September 26-28 with an analysis of the British market); active tourism (October 24-26 with an analysis of the Swiss market); and walking tourism (November 21-23 with an analysis of the Spanish market).
    Sardinian Tourism Councillor Barbara Argiolas presented the first event of the project together with Geasar Business Director Lucio Murru.
    "Sardinia Tourism Call 2 Action is an anchor in the promotion and communication plan that the Regional Tourism Council is promoting in coordination with the three Sardinian airports," Argiolas said. "We want to provide operators with a better knowledge of the international context and the demands of the client-tourist," she said.
    "For us, it's a privileged communications channel to enact promotional policies, promote destinations, create offers based on innovative tourism, and generate new seasons for tourism," she said.
    Josep Ejarque, an expert in destination management and marketing strategies, is the project's scientific coordinator.
    "We are working on transforming the Sardinian product, particularly on deseasonalisation," Ejarque said.
    "Sardinia is an island that is in a world of strong, aggressive competitors. We have to look at increasing the flow of international tourists, putting this region at the centre of the Mediterranean tourism market, but to succeed there must be a change of outlook, to understand what the market wants and build a portfolio of new operational tourism products," he said.