agro tourism project page 1
The Agro Tourism, Peace Education and the Literature Exchange Projects are funded by the European Union and realized with the collaboration of the Eymir Culture Foundation. The contents of this web page is the sole responsibility of Winpeace, and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union
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AGRO TOURISM PROJECT
page 01
Agro-tourism is an alternative, soft (not massive, not aggressive, and not industrialised) type of tourism that respects people and environment. It is a modern but also traditional way of tourism rooted into the local community and based upon their geographical characteristics, traditions, culture and customs. It is a business activity aiming at hosting tourists in private houses (mainly farms), or in the small pensions/hotels. For this reason it is evident that such kind of hospitality passes through the hands and the soul of the rural women.
It is experienced that women, if they are empowered by training and encouraged by other experienced women, participate more easily in a collective effort. Thanks to this initiative rural women in Turkey will obtain an important way to overcome their social and economic marginalisation. The women from the Greek side will be very glad to contribute to the empowerment of the Turkish rural women’s effort transferring to them their experience and their friendship. This cooperation will also be to their economic benefit too, since later on when marketing package tours with certain days in the Turkish village and certain days in Lesvos will enhance their earning power. As producers of culture in the rural areas of both Greece and Turkey, Greek and Turkish women will join hands to exchange their skills in achieving social and economic empowerment.
As mentioned above the Greek pilot village is Petra / Lesvos which has been functioning successfully since 1983. The cooperative has 30 members, 60 rooms to let, one restaurant and a shop in the village. The women of the cooperative are willing to collaborate with Turkish rural women and to start a network. Cooperative system among Greek women has been so successful that at the moment there are more than 160 women's cooperatives in agricultural and small business area besides tourism.
The pilot village in Turkey will be one of the Aegean villages nominated by the WINPEACE Turkey group according to the pre-determined criteria and selected by the steering committee. The criteria will be:
- A genuine village keeping Aegean traditions and folklore
- A village within a reachable distance from Lesbos/Ayvalık
- That has women with the potential to participate in the foreseen activities and the necessary background for a women"s cooperative
- That has local products and activities
- That has values to offer tourists
During the first 3 months of the project members of the steering committee will investigate several villages in the Aegean region and nominate 3 villages. The steering committee will decide which one is the most convenient for the objectives and will decide on the pilot village. The activities under this project will be:
- Deciding on the Turkish village after a 3 months survey
- Training of the pilot Turkish village women in subjects such as:
- Gender awareness and empowerment
- Cooperation between women
- What is agro-tourism
- Hygiene
- Human Relations
- Legal and financial basic information
- How to start room renting / training related to tourist accommodation
- How to produce and preserve local products (such as jam, honey, pickles, handicrafts, etc.)
- Two meetings between the women of the Turkish and Greek villages
These meetings will enable the women to share experiences and develop friendly relations. Women will also spend time working together: collecting herbs, picking olives, making cheese, exchanging recipes, having fun together, and learning from each other. Turkish women will be a bigger delegation and stay longer in Petra so that they have an on the spot training.
- To help the Turkish pilot village women to start their co.operative, prepare introductory leaflet and stand as consultant for their marketing.
Aims:
- To increase the professional know how of the rural women on agro-tourism
- To initiate rural women’s business cooperation between Greece and Turkey in order to increase understanding and decrease negative image of the other
- To introduce women from both countries to the similarities and differences of people of both countries and establish a ground for cooperation,
- To start a dialog at grass root level that will bypass the linguistic barrier
Target Group and Beneficiaries:
The direct beneficiaries of the agro-tourism project will be 30 women from the two selected villages, direct impacting the population of both villages, gradually impacting the rural women especially in Turkey establishing a model. The indirect beneficiaries are the general public of the two countries. The villages will be nuclei of friendship; acting like a stone in a pond creates enlarging circles.
Estimated Impact on Target Group:
Agro-tourism activity will improve the economical and social status of the rural women involved with a positive impact on the life standard of the whole village.
Relevance of the Project to the target group:
The agro-tourism activity will serve towards raising the social status of the rural women in their communities by strengthening them economically, as well as providing them with the opportunity of travelling abroad, getting in touch with other cultures and thus broadening their perspective. They will also benefit politically from the activity, as they will become involved in issues focussed around peaceful international relations.