This article forms part of a series of publications under MEDUSA project’s “Mediterranean sub-grant Adventure Tourism Competition” which aims at catalyzing the creation of new innovative adventure tourism products and experiences and upgrading existing products in our partner territories Jordan, Lebanon, Tunisia, Puglia (Italy) and Catalonia (Spain).

Enjoy reading and hope to welcome you soon at one of the wonderful places you will get to know here.   

In this article MEDUSA project interviewed sub-grants winner in Catalonia, Pedratour. Marinella Mosquera, founder and CEO of Pedratour, graduate in Tourism; Ada Behncké, in charge of environmental education activities and communication, graduate in Environmental Biology; and Anna Garcia also in charge of environmental education activities, graduate in environmental education.

1. What is “Pedratour” and when was it established?

Pedratour is a DMC (Destination Management Company) in the Pyrenees with 10 years of experience creating tourism packages. We are specialized in sustainable active tourism including cultural tourism, hiking trips, adventure tourism, etc. and we are currently expanding our brochure towards environmental education and ecotourism. We work around the globe, but we focus specially on Catalonia and, more specifically, on the Berguedà region where we are based.

Predatour was established as Marinella Mosquera’s Final Year Project in 2012. Since then, it has grown, developed itself, and expanded, as several people joined the team.  We create trips for particulars as well as for the administration, but we are also managing the Tourist Office in Bagà and its cultural resources, such as the Caves of Montserrat, and Cavalls del Vent –a trek in the Cadí-Moixeró Natural Park.

2. What kind of product/s are you going to develop with the help of MEDUSA sub-grant?

Medusa sub-grant will help us develop the Green Challenge Contest, a sustainability competition which serves as a common thread for the Green Challenge adventure tourism packages to be held during each of the 4 seasons of the year. The contest aims to reward the tourist’s sustainability with positive-impact practices. At the end of each season, the participants with the highest scores will receive a prize such as a discount for one of the off-season packages, a 1-day activity, etc.  The Green Challenge aims to integrate environmental and sociocultural education into adventure tourism in a fun, non-conventional way to enhance the tourists’ bonding with the territory and thus their desire to protect it.

We also intend to develop the Green Challenge App to manage the Green Challenge packages, the contest system and to offer several resources to our clients.

3. Adventure tourism definition includes cultural immersion. Can you explain more the cultural / didactic aspect of the products?

The Green Challenge packages will not only include adventure tourism activities, but also cultural immersion activities and environmental education activities. For instance, there are several visits to Romanesque churches and monasteries, and to museums where the tourist can learn about the Catalan culture and traditions such as the Cercs Mines Museum or the Cement Museum. It also includes gastronomic activities through which the visitor can discover the local and traditional cuisine. In addition, there are guided tours for sustainable and traditional farming exploitations, and artisanal workshops and factories such as artisan cheese factories.

Furthermore, we will offer mixed activities combining cultural activities and gastronomic experiences, such as a gastronomic dinner combined with star watching and a talk about cosmology and astronomy.

4. What were the challenges you faced as a sector and as an agency in the past and now?

Despite being close to Barcelona and one of the best-connected adventure tourism destinations in Catalonia, the Berguedà region is not a very popular one. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought a massive influx of tourists interested in nature and adventure tourism, but little aware of sustainability and sociocultural issues and not sufficiently committed to the preservation of the region’s unique natural and cultural heritage. It is important to keep attracting new visitors  when the health crisis is over, but it is necessary to encourage them to commit to sustainable tourism to protect the territory.

Furthermore, tourism in Berguedà is highly seasonal (visitors come mainly in summer), it has a dramatically low expenditure per visitor rate (it is mainly a one-day adventure tourism destination), and its negative impact is too great. Thus, there is an urgent need for sustainability-focused, several days long adventure tourism packages in Berguedà which favour deseasonalization and aim to maximise the positive impact of tourism.

5. How will your upcoming products address these challenges? What it is the expected positive impact?

Our intervention aim to promote sustainable adventure tourism in a less-known destination, off-season tourism and the decentralization of tourism. It aims to raise awareness of environmental and sociocultural issues, both related to the target area and globally, and encourage the visitors to commit to sustainability and to low-impact adventure tourism, thus contributing to the preservation of nature and of the economic and sociocultural integrity of the territory. As we are extremely client-oriented, we also expect our clients to build a lasting bond with the host area, thus creating loyalty towards the destination, which will in time expand the related benefits for the local community.

As the Green Challenge packages aim to integrate environmental and sociocultural education into adventure tourism in a fun, non-conventional way, we will offer specific training to our associates (whose products/services will be packaged) to encourage sustainable actions during the activity (such as river cleaning while canyoning), and to transmit the values of environmental, social and economic sustainability, knowledge of the territory and the concept of sustainable travelling.