The Belgian and Ecuadorian teams of the PREIT-tour research group developed different activities in Belgium for approximately one week.
First, they focused on disseminating the results of the south initiative: Fostering a platform for research-based education to support sustainable development through Tourism in the Cajas Massif Biosphere Area (CMBA), developed by the University of Cuenca and KU Leuven with the support of the VLIR-UOS program. They also learned about the design of the Master in Tourism of the Faculty of Sciences.
Later, the PREIT-tour team visited some of the KU Leuven facilities and met with some university authorities. In addition, they visited the technical team of tourism of the Flemish region to learn about different initiatives proposed by the public sector. They also visited some castles and abbeys with exciting management models. In Brussels, they could visit the Cantillon brewery, which keeps its brewing traditions and combines them with tourism. Then, they visited the city of Ghent and learned about some projects on cultural heritage conservation and local development.
One of the most important activities was to think of new projects to give continuity to work done. Then, the whole team received information about calls for projects from KU Leuven's international relations. Then, the team had several sessions to design projects, which were successful because they laid the foundations to continue working on different projects.
The Ecuadorian delegation is very grateful to Prof. Dominique Vanneste, PhD., Prof. Thérèse Steenberghen, PhD., and Prof. Arie Stoffelen, PhD., who were their hosts during their stay in Belgium.
Photo credits: PREIT-tour
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