22/09/2015 – Madrid / TRAGsa Press Release — A total of 51 professionals, all of them technicians and in charge of ecotourism in Wild Protected Areas at Costa Rica’s National Network of Preservation Areas (SINAC) took part in the courses given by professionals from Grupo TRAGSA, and which had as their main goal to strengthen the capabilities and knowledge of the workers from the above institution, which has an international repute.

The first course, which took place at the Santa Rosa National Park, in Guanacaste, dealt about “Interpreting the Heritage in Wild Protected Areas”. This course provided participants with a theoretical and conceptual foundation on this field, offering a set of technical tools which can help in designing visitor centers or interpretative walking trails.

Another key point in this workshop was highlighting the importance of the visitor, which is key when selecting the communication messages and strategy. In this regard, the students were provided with a number of techniques and resources aimed at improving the quality of the guided or self-guided visits to the places of natural interest.

Field work at the Volcano Tenorio National Park

On the other hand, Grupo TRAGSA, together with the Center for Protected Area Management (CPAM) of the Colorado State University has developed a training workshop on the “Designing, building and managing walking trails in protected areas”.

The Volcán Tenorio National Park was the site chosen for carrying out this course, which has combined theory with conferences on the planning, design, building and maintenance of walking trails.

This training was completed with a number of field sessions which involved the real building of more than 60 meters of footpaths on that protected area.

This initiative was very positively assessed by participants, who regarded it as having a high quality level and above all, very useful for performing their daily tasks in their workplaces.

TRAGSA and Grupo SEPI

TRAGSA belongs to Grupo SEPI, a corporate holding which includes a total of 16 state-owned companies in which it has direct, majority shareholding participations, with a final workforce of around 73,000 professionals in 2014; the Spanish state-owned television and radio corporation, Corporación Radiotelevisión Española, which is attached to SEPI, and one public foundation. Equally, SEPI has direct minority shareholdings in a further ten companies, and indirect shareholdings in more than one hundred companies.