Normally, MTC offers, through its network of almost 50 trainers around the world, workshops to destinations, organisations and companies, who decide by themselves about who will participate in the workshop.
On the occasion of the PATA Travel Mart, however, MTC offered an open workshop for individual participants one day before PTM and a venue near the QSNCC, where the PTM took place.
An intensive day, characterised by an introduction followed by role plays with all participants taking on the role of one of the stakeholders, centered on the question of how to develop a destination, taking Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha in Nepal, as an example.
As in other workshops before, it was very interesting to see how the participants developed new perspectives in their respective roles, with a male Mongolian tourism expert turning into a 55-year-old lady running a local souvenir shop and a male Thai tour operator making statements as the local female tourism minister.
At the end, some innovative solutions and a list of very practical KPI Key Performance Indicators were developed, and all participants had achieved a clear understanding of how to use the Meaningful Tourism tools for actionable sustainable tourism development measures, aligning interests instead of seeking compromises.
All participants agreed that the workshop also gave a perfect introduction to the Knowledge Forum, which followed on the next day as part of the PTM 2025.