MILAN (AIMnews.it) – Great success for the III edition of the MEET forum (Mediterranean European Economic Tourism Forum) promoted by Portale Sardegna. The event was attended by over 200 experts at international level including representatives of local communities, operators, financial intermediaries, air and naval carriers. Unicredit was the main sponsor of the event. At the centre of the discussion are the crucial themes of tourism development for the Mediterranean areas: Ports and Airports as territorial Hubs of tourism development, Benchmark Destination, New Tourist Sites for New Seasons. A summary of the discussions was illustrated during the Final Conference which hosted the ‘Grande Laboratorio del Turismo’, in which sector operators had the opportunity to discuss the industry and make comparisons with each other. “We are extremely satisfied with the success of the MEET Forum which gives a great opportunity for operators and institutions to compare tourism-related development projects that, in the 18 seminars organised, showed how strong the interest is in these issues and above all the need of the various organisms of the tourism system to make comparisons according to new models under proposal during the event – commented Massimiliano Cossu, Managing Director of Portale Sardegna – On this occasion we also presented the structured projects with which Portale Sardegna intends to carry out with great determination an overall strategy for the lengthening of the tourist season – SARDINIAN ISLAND LONG STAY WINTER and OPEN VOUCHER EXPERIENCES – exploiting our strengths built with the acquisition of RTJ that also represents a continuously growing percentage of foreign customers and technological assets managed entirely in house.” The first project, SARDINIAN ISLAND LONG STAY WINTER, offers tourists, in particular from central and northern Europe, who decide to stay for a long holiday in Sardinia, a series of initiatives and services ranging from multilingual listening points to experiential and social initiatives (weekly teaching cycles on languages, cooking, environmental and tourist topics, etc), from health assistance to car rental and, at the end of the period of stay, a citizenship certificate. This new way of experiencing a holiday offers tourists the opportunity to integrate with the community. The initiative foresees a total involvement of 4 pilot municipalities (Posada, Bitti, Nuoro and Galtellì) and the establishment by 30th November of an Intermunicipal control centre. Starting in April, marketing activities will be launched, so as to present the operating service as a pilot in September 2019. OPEN VOUCHER EXPERIENCES, on the other hand, assumes that for the development of tourism in seasons other than for seaside, it is necessary to identify seasonally adjusted attractions. Experiential tourism is an opportunity that the island must take to lengthen the tourist season. Open Voucher Experiences is the only integrated solution to fully exploit the particularities of experiential tourism. Portale Sardegna has catalogued the tourist experiences in the territory, organised and classified them according to themes, building around them a traveling, self-made and modular product composed of accommodation and means of transport able to make Sardinia an attractive destination for most of the year. The most important innovations are high-intensity concepts such as ‘open source travel’, the first example structured in this way, where anyone can propose ways of populating the portal’s proposals in exchange for revenue sharing, rather than accommodation reviews, instead all the experiences that can be bought by another user according to more and more popular trends within sharing economy. Finally, an app that will follow the user in the destination through proximity marketing during a proposed activity. The Open Voucher will start on December 15th 2018.