The MEET Forum (Mediterranean European Economic Tourism Forum), for the third consecutive year, hosts the most awaited event for operators in the Sardinian tourism sector. Promoted and organised by Portale Sardegna, the initiative brings together in the evocative setting of the Regional Park of Tepilora, over 200 international experts, offering an opportunity to present the initiatives that were carried out by the company and led by Massimiliano Cossu, aimed at tracing a road of discovery with 'new tourism for new seasons'. Two pillars of this small but important revolution: Sardinian Island Long Stay Winter and Open Voucher Experiences. Key to the two projects is the idea of experience: "The future of tourism - comments Cossu - passes through the customer experience". In 2017 Portale Sardegna achieved a production value of 5.8 million euro (+ 29.5% on 2016), with Ebitda at 0.32 million euro and an EBITDA margin of 5.5% (1.6 % in 2016). The MEET Forum is an increasing point of reference for operators of the sector in Sardinia. What are the reasons for the success? Our event closes the tourist season and offers us the opportunity to take stock of this topic. Furthermore, it is an opportunity to do business and meet stakeholders that are difficult to reach during the year, from institutional to cultural ones. At the centre of this edition is the theme 'new tourism for new seasons'. What does this mean? The goal is to expand the tourist season by focusing on experiences. The tourist peak today is concentrated into 60 days, our goal is to extend it to about 220 days to flatten the Gauss curve that currently characterises the presence of tourists in our region. In what way? Actually targeting new tourism for new seasons. In May we decided to capitalise on the potential deriving from the acquisition of Royal Travel Jet Sardegna, widening the audience of potential tourists and taking advantage of new tools, calibrated on the idea of experiential tourism. It is from here that the future of tourism will pass. Two tools will be presented with which to pursue these objectives. Let's start with Open Voucher Experiences, what is it? On December 15th we will launch our 'tourism platform', a collection of experiences capable of keeping together packages of different itineraries, with a wide and varied offer that also takes into account receptiveness. Our platform is an interface between experience and the tourist, through which they can build a traveling experience through this tool, build an itinerary that best suits their needs, write reviews related to the proposed itineraries, and even with the reviews built by other tourists, develop a journey. The thread: the experience, understood as enhancing our knowledge of daily life. Those who visit Sardinia, in a different period to summer, do it to come into contact with a territory, its traditions and its culture. The goal is to first transform what is attractive to consumers, and then develop the touristic products that are peculiar to our tradition and ancient wisdoms such as the cooking of carasau bread, the typical Sardinian cheese, the weaving of carpets and other ancient crafts that mark the life of the local communities, outside the tourist circuits. With Sardinian Island Long Stay Winter, on the other hand, the focus is on short-term citizenship. What is this talking about? A program that focuses on a new model of tourism, addressed above all to the citizens of Scandinavian countries. The idea is to offer a structured holiday package, turning Sardinia into the ideal place to spend the winter. The model is that of the Balearic and Canary Islands, and the guiding idea: transforming our guests from long-term tourists to short-term citizens. There will be four pilot municipalities where the initiative will start next year. No hotels: these tourists will stay in apartments - because citizens have houses - and will be involved in the daily life of local communities. Also in this case, our traditions and the process that leads to their discoveries will be the guiding thread of this stay, which will also have as an added value, the direct contact with the Sardinian language. The ultimate goal is precisely to encourage the integration of tourists in the daily life of the host community. What response do you expect from the population of the pilot countries? The project will start no earlier than September 2019 in the four Municipalities of Posada, Bitti, Nuoro and Galtellì. This will be a process of one year precisely because our priority is to involve and excite the people of our territories, making them participants and protagonists of this initiative. Only they, in fact, can establish the success of this project.