Abstract:

Master on Management of Sustainable and Ecological Tourism (MEST) was designed as a specialized postgraduate degree, whose aim was to create future graduates able to carry out a comprehensive ecotourism management. It was an official Master Programme, adapted to European Higher Education Area. The project, leaded by School of Forestry - Technical University of Madrid, UPM, with partners from different European countries, finished in October 2015, with a high mark by European evaluators. At present, School of Forestry is working to adapt the programme to an official Master of UPM, accredited by ANECA: METS. The modules created in MEST are nowadays supporting the academic contents of METS, but including variations in three specialties of the sustainable and ecological tourism: Sportive Tourism, Rural Tourism and Tourism in Nature; so as subjects in the frame of Marketing, Quality and Social Responsibility. Different companies and tourism entities hold dissemination activities, in order to promote the Master, and it was created the figure “Friends of Master”, that include about a ten of entities, organizations and companies, whose activity is directly related to sustainable and ecological tourism, and whose objectives are related to the establishment of a network of mutual cooperation, generating a focal point for discussion and exchange of experiences and knowledge, collaborating on the academic side and in the generation of METS communication channels. The duration of the master will be one academic year (60 ECTS), it will be implemented through virtual learning platform, and it will begin in September 2016.

Keywords:

Tourism, Learning, Sustainable, Master, Ecology.