Olive Oil Tourism in the Euro-Mediterranean Area

Abstract

This paper explores Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) as a common example of Euro-Mediterranean heritage and its potential in promoting innovative tourism development initiatives and cooperation in producing areas. The main aim of the work is to highlight the existing initiatives based on the olive oil heritage of the Euro-Mediterranean producing countries, including Spain, Italy, Greece and Portugal as EU member states, and Tunisia, Turkey, Morocco and the Syrian Arab Republic as non-EU states (International Olive Oil Council 2018) with the additional consideration of Lebanon for its solid reputation as an olive oil producer. Through investigative research, this work tries to demonstrate the most outstanding initiatives, products and events related to olive oil and aimed at giving more visibility to its heritage and culture in the Euro-Mediterranean area. The initiatives found show new inputs for the modern tourism systems of the olive-growing areas. The initiatives also point to EVOO being a common heritage that can offer important opportunities to inspire innovative proposals, capable of connecting the Mediterranean  countries and of enhancing their common olive-growing identity with suggestive proposals addressed to modern tourists, increasingly interested in getting in contact with authentic heritages and the typical food of the destination they visit.