On June 14 and 15, 2022, the MEDUSA partners from Spain, Jordan, Tunisia, Italy and Lebanon travelled to Lebanon to meet in the fifth Steering Committee. The conference was a chance for the partners to discuss the technical and financial states of the project, MEDUSA sub-grants, marketing strategies, communication strategies, the evaluation state and the project´s achievements and future goals. On the second day, the MEDUSA project’s partners had the chance to visit two of the Lebanese beneficiaries of the sub-grants, Xploriders (hiking trails) in Darayia, Keserwan District and Association Libanaise d’Etudes Spéléologiques (ALES) (mountain biking trail) in Qlayaat, Keserwan District.

During the conference, the partners shed the light on the fact that all the countries of the project share the same challenges such as the 3S tourism model (sun, sea and sand), high unemployment rates and security issues. The MEDUSA project is trying to change the status quo and wants to attract tourist during the whole year which will have a positive impact. Albert Rodriguez, project manager from the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce mentions “if this is achieved, we will have more stable jobs rather than temporary ones which will decrease unemployment rate, and the adventure tourism model will allow us to bring exposure to less known areas.”

As such, Lutecia Beainy, project manager of the MEDUSA project from the Rene Moawad Foundation in Lebanon mentioned that the MEDUSA project is contributing to creating jobs and income in all partner countries since it is of great benefit to tour operators, travel agencies, guides, SMEs, farmers, small hotels and everyone who works or is related to the tourist sector.

In addition, the partners insisted on the importance of the national and cross-border cooperation that is happening in the MEDUSA project. In fact, Lina Al Khaled, project manager at the Jordan Inbound Tour Operators Association mentioned that in Jordan, the two stakeholders, JITOA and The Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN) divided the work amongst themselves for the success of the project, the former focuses on business development while the latter focuses on nature and conservation. Moreover, she said “On the project level, this cooperation was an opportunity to learn from the experience and expertise of the Spanish and Italian partner in the development of the standards in Jordan.”

Thanks to the cross-border cooperation, the MEDUSA project is trying to bring hope to the entire region by building bridges and boosting as well as strengthening essential industries such as tourism, agriculture and innovation. Finally, sustainability and conservation of the region are the pillars of the project, as MEDUSA aims to create and develop adventure tourism project in line with the planet, nature and biodiversity in order to preserve the Mediterranean for future generations.