II Congreso Europeo de Turismo Rural, "Reinventarse para crear destino".

Se celebra mañana en Mangirón (Madrid), el II Congreso Europeo de Turismo Rural, "Reinventarse para crear destino".
Si no puedes asistir en persona al congreso no te preocupes, podrás verlo online desde la web de COETUR.
Aquí tienes los horarios del programa:

Miércoles 30 de septiembre
9:00 Bienvenida y acreditación
09:30 Inauguración institucional
- Belén Martínez Díaz, Subdirectora General de Desarrollo y Sostenibilidad Turística de la Dirección General de Turismo de la Comunidad de Madrid
- Marta Blanco Quesada, Directora General de Turespaña
- Ángel Martínez Herrero, Presidente del Grupo de Acción Local Sierra Norte (GALSINMA) y Presidente de la Mancomunidad del Valle del Lozoya (MVNL)
10:00 Presentación Observatorio del Turismo Rural
- Enric López, Director Master Universitario “E-tourism” (CETT-UB)
- Ana Alonso, Directora de Comunicación de EscapadaRural.com
10:45 El turismo en la región de Madrid. Nuevas estrategias
- Belén Martínez Díaz, Subdirectora General de Desarrollo y Sostenibilidad Turística de la Dirección General de Turismo de la Comunidad de Madrid
11:15 Coffee break
11:30 El turismo rural, una perspectiva internacional
- Klaus Ehrlich, Secretario General de Eurogites
entrevistado por Pedro Madera "Gente viajera" (Onda Cero)
12:00 Los partners estratégicos del sector
- Aránzazu Urbina, Técnico de la Dirección General de Turismo de la Comunidad de Madrid
- Gustavo Nash, Representante de la Asociación de Turismo Sierra de Madrid (ATUSIMA)
- Miguel Ángel Jara, Gerente de la Asociación de Desarrollo Sierra de Guadarrama (ADESGAM)
- Ana Patricia Zapardiel, Directora de Proyectos de la Sociedad Estatal para la Gestión de la Innovación y las Tecnologías Turísticas (SEGITTUR)
moderado por Antonio Gonzalo, propietario de Ecoturismo Monte Holiday
13:15 Reinvención del marketing turístico
- Rafael Chamorro Marín, Subdirector General de Marketing Exterior del Turismo en Turespaña
14:00 Comida
15:30 Plataformas de mensajería instantánea para generar negocio en turismo rural
- Tirso Maldonado, Evangelist Manager en Witcamp
16:30 Las Asociaciones, ¿qué se puede esperar de ellas y qué esperan ellas de sus asociados?
- Ventura García, Vicepresidente de la Asociación Española de Turismo Rural (ASETUR)
- Francisco Parra, Presidente de la Asociación de Profesionales del Turismo Rural (AUTURAL)
- Luis Chico Luque, Presidente de la Asociación de Empresarios de Turismo Rural de Valladolid y la Federación de Asociaciones Castellano y Leonesa de Turismo Rural (ACALTUR)
- Adriano Berdasco, Presidente de la Federación Asturiana de Turismo Rural (FASTUR)
moderado por Jesús del Tío, propietario de las casas rurales Aguas Frías y Entre Valles
17:30 Coffee break
17:45 Empresarios reinventados
- Morelia Bueno, propietaria de la casa rural La Calma
- Chema Ramón, propietario del Hotel Rural La Casa del Río
- Carmen Suárez Rull, propietaria de la casa rural Luces del Poniente
- Miguel Ángel Paños Martín, gerente explotación del Agroturismo Calixto
moderado por Rodrigo Martín Jiménez, gerente y propietario de casas rurales Navaluenga.net y Airsofttotal
19:00 Entrega de premios
Entrega de los II Premios de EscapadaRural.com

Jueves 1 de octubre
09:00 Reinventa tu negocio. Microponencias de 20 minutos
- “Estrategias de comercialización para mejorar el ROI”, Anna Cano (consultora de comunicación)
- “Reputación online”, Rafa González (Socio Director de Vivential Value)
- “Turismo Activo y alojamientos rurales: un tándem de éxito”, José Carlos de Santiago (Presidente de la Asociación Nacional de Empresas de Turismo Activo, ANETA)
- “Fotografía rural para no fotógrafos”, Aníbal Trejo (anibaltrejo.com)
10:30 Coffee break
10:45 ¿Qué podemos aprender del mercado francés?
- Anahilia Stredel-Laurent, Directora de Gîtes de France Pyrénées-Orientales
- Gabriela Rodríguez, Responsable de las Iniciativas de Desarrollo de la Cooperación Transfronteriza de Gîtes de France
11:30 Embajadores de destinos
- Francisco Jerez, Responsable del Producto rural y de Naturaleza en el Área de Producto del Instituto de Turismo de la Región de Murcia
- Juan Ángel Martínez, Gestor alojamiento Hostal Rural Miralmundo
- José Miguel “Sele” Redondo, blog elrincondesele.com
- Rafael Nasarre, Jefe de Servicios de Promoción Turística de Turismo de Aragón
moderado por José María de Juan, Socio Director de Koan Consulting
13:00 Clausura y conclusiones
- Ana Alonso, Directora de Comunicación de EscapadRural.com
- Ángel Martínez, Presidente del Grupo de Acción Local Sierra Norte (GALSINMA) y Presidente de la Mancomunidad del Valle del Lozoya (MVNL)
http://www.coetur.com/…

Cortijo Las Monjas at the 5th European Congress on Rural Tourism, october 2014, Alpbach, Tyrol

 
Here it is a video with the presentation i made for the 5th European Congress on Rural Tourism. This event takes place every two years and is organised by the EuroGites-European Federation of Rural Tourism. In October 2014, together with its national partner Austrian Farm Holidays in Alpbach, Tyrol. www.europeanrtcongress.org

They asked me for a presentation where i could give to the colleagues from other countries in rural tourism an impression how rural tourism works in the very South of Europe from my experience as an owner/manager of a rural accomodation.

I thought that could be nice to share this presentation and explain you a bit, with this video, about our story. My name is Almudena and toguether with my family we run Cortijo Las Monjas.

Sometimes, originally a rural accommodation is not build for tourism, and this is our case, Cortijo Las Monjas was restored in 2002 as a family tourism business to complement the olive farming of 14 has.

In fact more than 300 years ago the farmhouse belonged to the nuns, this is why this house is called Cortijo de Las Monjas (Cortijo is the word in Andalusia for deisgn a Farmhouse and Monjas is Spanish for Nuns) the Nuns were not living here, we found a rental agreement from the year 1709, where appear that the nuns just own the land and the house and the farmers could live there in exchange for work on the landand they could pay them with food and some money.

Around 100 years ago my family arrived to this place first like workers and later like owners.
My mother and her brother and sister were born here and they were living here till the 60, when they get married and then all of them went to look for a better life at the city. The Cortijo was abandoned and started to be more a ruin that a house

Around the 80´s, for differents reasons my parents took care of the Cortijo and the land, they worked so hard to get the house inhabited again. They drove every weekend 3 hours one wayand 3 hours way back to work at the house, in the field, picking olives and other fruits.

My brother Nacho and me, were already there too, we spent every holiday at the Cortijo, our best memories from our chilhood are here, and not everything was work... (almost :-D )

The Cortijo was like the holiday house for the family and other friends from the city who wanted to spend a weekend at the countryside, this was maybe like the start of the rural tourism in Andalusia, but nobody called it like that, was more like “nos vamos al campo” this means “let’s go to the countryside”, my father sometimes says, life changed into the other way around, when he was a child his parents took him to see how looks the City, now parents take the children to the countryside because they even don’t know how a sheep looks like.

In 2000, the house was needed of a big reform, and we decided to renovate the place and to change it into a rural accommodation, like a complement for the olive production. My father was the promotor, he was thinking on it for a long time, and with his experience like a constructor he made the plans and the whole family helped to create it.

When people arrive, they always take some time to enjoy the view and many people find there is a magical atmosphere in and around the Cortijo. Both the authenticity and the beautiful surroundings makes Cortijo las Monjas a very special place to stay.

Also what made the rural tourism diferent, is us, we are living there and the treatment we can give to our guests is much more familiar than in a hotel, the are not a number room, the are call by their name.
The can experience how life is at our place, they can taste the diferents local products, the food for our garden and if they want the can join us in the diferents activities.

I am an active member of differents associations, working for the development of the region from the conservation of natural and cultural heritage. We colaborate with this organizations and we also organice here and in the area differents events, always trying to keep the traditions.

Over the past years, we have develop and diversify our offer, weedings, small MICE events, open-air celebrations are also possible. We organized different kind of courses and workshops, about olive oil, wine, aromatics and medicinal plants...etc.

In Andalusia the climate is very suitable for offering other outdoor activities almost the whole year round. A lot of people don’t realise the best time to visit the area is off season and even in winter it can be very comfortable wheater. Hiking, ciclyng, horse riding, cayoing, speleology are other activities you can practice here.

Next to all the romance, it is real hard work to keep everything running, but we just love what we do and where we live, this is why we will go on, giving the chance to the people to discover our region and our little paradise, and having the reward to make people happy for being here.

Hope you liked our story and i hope to see you soon!
Almudena

5th European Congress on Rural Tourism in Austria.

5th European Congress on Rural Tourism at the start of October in Alpbach/Tyrol!

This event takes place every two years and is organised by the EuroGites-European Federation of Rural Tourism, this year together with its national partner Austrian Farm Holidays.

Under the Leitmotiv “European Rural Tourism 2020”, the congress considered the state of art and future challenges of this sector. As in previous years, it provided a meeting point and discussion forum for the Rural Tourism entrepreneurs, interested practicians from the private and public sector, and academics involved in rural tourism.

Program

The congress takes place on two plenary days (6th/7th-October), plus one day for optional excursions. You can find the program below.

Monday	6. October 2014
13:00 - 14:00	Opening * Andy Woodward - President EuroGites * Klaus Vitzthum - President Farm Holidays Austria * Josef Margreiter - Executive Director Tyrol Tourist Board * Dr. Angelika Liedler - Head of Division International Tourism, Austrian Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy * Christian Rosenwirth - Head of Division Rural Development, Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management Moderator: Hans Embacher - Executive Director Farm Holidays Austria
14:00 - 15:30	First session - Rural tourism - a hidden champion? Klaus Ehrlich - General Secretary EuroGites, Spain Rural tourism in Europe - state of art (figures, products, concepts, markets, … ) Jason Freezer - Head of Destination Management at VisitEngland, UK Securing a successful future for rural tourism; potential, market forces and development needs in rural tourism The diversity of rural tourism in Europa – 2 practical cases from North and South: Anne Karine Statle - Manager of LofotenMat, Norway Under the arctic sky; rural tourism on the Lofoten Almudena Martín Torregrosa - Provider and Board member of the Rural Tourism Association of Andalusia, Spain Rural appartements in Andalusia
15:30 - 16:00	Coffee break
16:00 - 17:30	Second session - Trends & horizons Developments in the social, cultural and business environment Bente Grimm - Project manager at the "Institut für Tourismus- und Bäderforschung in Nordeuropa" Germany How well do you know your customer? Customer expectations and needs, the "customer journey" in the internet, market and expectation research & similar; facts to the Germany market Prof. Dr. Roman Egger - Researcher and lecturer in the field of eTourism at the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences, Austria Is the future a bright one? The technological perspective. Technological developments in tourism (from internet-tools, GPS-applications to google glass) and their application and effect on tourism; Information and communication technologies challenging the tourism industry
19:30 - 20:00	Exposition of posters from participating countries with their representatives being available to give explanations (in the foyer of the CongressAlpbach)
20:00	Dinner At the conference venue - hosted by the Austrian Ministry of Agriculture, Environment and Water Management. Music: Die Hoameligen
Tuesday	7. October 2014
09:00	Opening of the day Johann Hörtnagl; President Farm Holiday in the Tyrol
09:10 - 09:40	Third session - The Challenge of Change Hans Dominicus - Managing director of the Netherlands‘ Centre of Expertise Tourism, Leisure & Hospitality (CELTH), The Netherlands The challenge of change; Keynote on the permanent changes and how to cope with it (“strategies for change-management”)
09:40 - 11:00	Working groups Five parallel working groups on specific topics Moderator: Andy Woodward, Director Farm Stay UK A. Impact of internet on booking - OTA versus own sales (simultaneous translation English and German) Experts: Ronald Felder - Managing director of Tiscover, Austria and Klaus Niederacher - Chief Operating Officer Seekda, Austria Leading questions: In general online-platforms are highly standardized. How can/could they support or promote rural tourism or be more geared to the strengths of rt? (individuality, personal contact, small business, ...) How do you see the future of rt in the internet / on OTA’s? From the viewpoint of an OTA – what is the role and function of an rt-organisation? Moderator: Linas Zabaliunas, President of the Lithuanian Countryside Tourism Association, Lithuania B. Branding, quality and consumer satisfaction - control, crowd-sourced versus objective evaluation, ... (simultaneous translation English and German) Experts: Michael Menzel - Sales Director at TrustYou GmbH, Germany and Elisabeth Hiltermann - CEO Kohl & Partner Hotel and Tourism Consulting Munich, Germany Leading questions: How best to ensure “quality” in terms of customer-satisfaction: customer-review- plattforms vs. quality-systems like stars, flowers, etc.  “Objective” vs. “subjective” quality. What do we need in the future? Are the customers interested in rt-brands? If yes, why? What do they look for when they use a brand? How can an rt-brand’s quality be best integrated in OTA’s? Moderator: Asnate Ziemele, President of Lauku Celotajs, Latvian Country Tourism Assoc., Latvia C. Safety and Security  – legal and practical framework, and how to ease it for micro-services? (English only!) Experts: Jasper Hart - Farmer and Tourism Entrepreneur, UK and Simon Hansen - Operations Manager TrollAktiv / Rescue 3 instructor, Norway Leading questions: Safety in an adventurous environment - How do clients appreciate safety and security?  What are main issues (problems and conflicts) perceived by clients and providers Experiences with legal requirements in EU countries – what is Best Practice? Are requirements as such adequate to micro-service reality? – getting worse or getting better? Moderator: Patrick Farjas, Board member of Gites de France D. The role and future of rural tourism organisations (English only!) Experts: Susanne Warlimont - Managing director national association Bauernhof- und Landurlaub Bayern, Germany and Almudena Martín Torregrosa - Provider and Board member of the Rural Tourism Association of Andalusia, Spain Leading questions: What do our (potential) clients (providers, members) want from us as an organisation? What do the (potential) guests want from an rt-organisation? What can we deliver? What can the rt-organisations deliver, e.g. different from or with respect to online-booking-platforms, etc.? Is there a “public interest” in rt-organisations? What can they deliver what the market cannot/does not deliver?  What will the role of rt-organisations be in 10 years’ time? Moderator: Panos Poulos, President of the Peloponnese Agrotourism Union / Secretary, General of SEAGE, Greek Agrotourism Union, Greece E. "Rural tourism is more than a bed" - but what more (German only!) Experts: Cornelia Hass - Managing director of the Rural Tourism Association of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany and Franz Gredler - Head of Department Business Development, Eurotours International, Austria Leading questions: What is expected from “rural tourism” (what is different from other forms of tourism)? How do we fulfil these needs and desires?  Which services do we provide “internally” and what do we need from “external partners”? Is rt distinctly different in these fields? Do we have a “rural tourism USP”? What is this RT-USP and what needs to be added?
11:00 - 11:30	Coffee break
11:30 - 12:30	Reports of working groups to plenary & discussion
12:30 - 14:00	Lunch
14:00 - 15:30	Fourth session - A look over the fence What can we learn from other perspectives Franz Gredler - Head of Department Business Development, Eurotours International, Austria Cooperation with tour operators – advertising with guaranteed success!? Work with tour operators – what are the rules? Sabine Pool - Project Manager Research and Development, National Foundation for the Elderly, The Netherlands New market-segments for rural tourism: older target groups Andreia Roque - ABRATURR - Associação Brasileira de Turismo Rural New markets: Rural Tourism in Brazil Hans Dominicus - Managing director of the Netherlands‘ Centre of Expertise Tourism, Leisure & Hospitality; former marketing director of Amsterdam Marketing, The Netherlands How our competitors do it - What can we learn from the success of City Tourism?
15:30 - 16:00	Coffee break
16:00 - 17:40	Fifth session - What do we need for a good future? Hans Embacher - Executive Director Farm Holidays Austria Panel discussion on impressions, ideas, recommendations, what to take home from the congress, etc. with: Luis Cortés - Founder & CEO of Ferias de Navarra S.L., Pamplona/Spain Peggy Balitsari - Co-founder of the Greek Network of rural accommodation Guest Inn, Greece Ernst Schwald - "Bodensee Akademie" for sustainable development, Dornbirn/Austria Karin Schabus - Provider Holidays on the Farm, Bad Kleinkirchheim/Austria Kristina Vanciene - Rural Tourism Provider, Lithuania Andy Woodward - President EuroGites Summary and closure of the congress
20:00	An evening in the Alps Dinner and music at the Hornboden mountain restaurant in the Alps Transfer parking area Böglerhof–Hornboden cable car (see local plan) at 19:00 Return–Transfer: cable car (bottom station)–Böglerhof at 22:15, 23:15 and 00:15 (Attention: cable car from Hornboden (top station) only at the following times: 22:00, 23:00 and 23:45) Music: ClariMusi ATTENTION: Solid shoes recommended!
Wednesday	8. October 2014
09:00 - 16:00	Field/Study visits Tyrolean Holiday Farms – hands-on cases Life in the Alps – history and future Meeting point: bus stop „Böglerhof“ in Alpbach