Organization of Familiarization Trips Lebanon (FAM Trips)

The Mediterranean Adventures Marketing Plan:

The 5 MEDUSA destinations Catalunya, Jordan, Lebanon, Tunisia, and Puglia were all facing similar challenges when they started the MEDUSA project to jointly develop and promote sustainable adventure tourism in the Mediterranean region. The so-called “3 S tourism model”, standing for sea, sand and sun, was a pre-dominant tourism model creating limited seasonal jobs and the Covid-19 crisis has additionally enforced the economic slowdown of local tourism industries in the destinations. Uncontrolled spread of visitor flows (“over-tourism”) resulting in growing pressure on natural resources and social impacts, along with a lack of knowledge about the competitiveness of sustainable tourism practices and innovative sustainable tourism, all paved the way for a new and more sustainable tourism model: Sustainable Adventure Tourism (SAT) for the MED region.

LEBANON destination is not yet strongly positioned and known on the sustainable, Adventure Tourism and specialised international tourism market. It features strong potential to become competitive authentic and a sustainable tourism destination. Lebanon has already strong SAT Flagship products in place and the design of innovative, sustainable adventure tourism products is ongoing and being finalized (Mediterranean Adventure Tourism Sub-Granting Competition).

Therefore, to ensure a strong marketing positioning, the project developed a marketing strategy and plan of action that will help Lebanon achieve this objective.

The ambition of the project is to increase the visibility and attractiveness of less well-known destinations, resulting in increased international tourist arrivals in Lebanon. Furthermore, an equalization of tourist streams in terms of seasonality and geographical areas results in more balanced distribution of income and strain on the territory and population. A sustainability-oriented approach to tourism management safeguards biodiversity, wildlife, natural and cultural resources, as well as rural communities. The multi-stakeholder initiative counts on the participation of a wide range of tourism actors from the private sector, such as tourism service providers, tour operators (TOs), travel agencies, public authorities, and communities.

Objective, purpose and expected results:

The overall objective of this tender is soliciting 3rd party expertise to organize a Familiarization Trip (FAM Trip) to Lebanon   under MEDUSA project Lebanon and stakeholders’ participation in a specialized adventure tourism Itinerary that aim at promoting the Lebanon and Mediterranean Adventure brand. Therefore, the tenderers are expected to propose a management fee that will cover for around 6 people coming from Worldwide MEDIA and Tour Operators.

The tenderer is expected to support the MEDUSA project in the following activities:

• Update MEDUSA database of specialized adventure tour operators and adventure tourism media in the target countries (US, UK Germany, France and Norway) as well as in MEDUSA partner countries based on a set criteria (to be proposed by the tenderer and agreed with the project) to be used by the project for outreach purposes and to create linkages and networking opportunities for international tour operators and those in the 5  MEDUSA territories, thus encouraging conclusion of commercial agreements amongst them.
• The tenderer shall be responsible for any travel arrangements and accommodation of the private sector participants (6 people) from the 6 destinations and the MEDUSA team (3 people). The tenderer will be required to travel to the exhibition (refer to Annex 1)
• The tenderer shall be required to issue an offer covering flights tickets of 6 participants, hotel accommodation in Lebanon, Full board, Any entrance, activity or guide fees, and transport. The tenderer shall agree with MEDUSA team on all and shall be responsible for conducting a fair selection in line with ENI rules and regulations. The process will be overseen by the MEDUSA team to ensure conformity. (refer to Annex 1)
• It is expected that some 4 adventure tour operators and 2 specialized adventure media shall participate in these FAMs. The tenderer shall be responsible for developing eligibility criteria for the FAM trips participants in coordination with the MEDUSA team.

The following overall results are expected to be achieved:

RESULT Nº1: Prepare a full Itinerary of 4 to 5 days in Lebanon that covers hidden gems and MEDUSA Sub Grants Activities.

RESULT Nº2: Include each day the choice between 2 or more Adventure Tourism Sports Activities.

RESULT Nº3: Organize BtoB meeting with tour operators/ Tourist SMEs/ Sub-Grantees etc.

RESULT Nº4: Full Itinerary should cover Flight Tickets, Accommodation, Full Board, Insurance, Transport and Fees entrances to Any site, guide or activity.

Start date and period of implementation of the tasks:

The intended start date is January 25th, 2023 till January 29th, 2023 unless otherwise agreed.