July 18, 2017

MED Sustainable Tourism Community’s contribution to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation’s discussion paper

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The fourteen Interreg Med projects that make up the MED Sustainable Tourism Community have given a joint contribution to the UNWTO – United Nations World Tourism Organisation’s discussion paper on “Tourism for Sustainable Development“. In the framework of the activities for the “International Year of Tourism” the UNWTO is leading a collective and strategic reflexion to exploit the huge potential of the tourism industry in fostering a more sustainable development.

The MED Sustainable Tourism Community is taking this opportunity to highlight the benefits and pitfalls of the tourism industry with a particular focus on tourism pressures on natural and built environment. These pressures may result in serious threats for local population in terms of quality of life and at the same time degrade tourism assets with direct negative effects on future tourism development. Based on the experience and competences of its fourteen projects, the MED Community is commenting the main pillars of the discussion paper and proposing some guidelines for a more sustainable and inclusive development of tourism. Finally, taking stock of the achievements of six case studies, based on EU funded projects, the MED Community is highlighting best practices that could be scaled up and shared amongst stakeholders and key players of the tourism industry worldwide.

The summary of the MED Sustainable Tourism Community’s contribution to the UNWTO discussion paper is available here.

 

The modular projects within this Community are: ALTER ECO (Alternative tourist strategies to enhance the local sustainable development of tourism by promoting Mediterranean Identity), BLUEISLANDS (Seasonal variation of waste as effect of tourism), BLUEMED (Plan/test/coordinate Underwater Museums, Diving Parks and Knowledge Awareness Centres to support sustainable and responsible tourism development and promote Blue growth in coastal areas and islands of the Mediterranean), CASTWATER (Coastal areas sustainable tourism water management in the Mediterranean), CO-EVOLVE (Promoting the co-evolution of human activities and natural systems for the development of sustainable coastal and maritime tourism), CONSUME-LESS (Consume Less in Mediterranean Touristic Communities), DestiMED (Mediterranean Ecotourism Destination: joint planning, monitoring, management and promotion for a governance system in Mediterranean protected areas), EMbleMatiC (Emblematic Mediterranean Mountains as Coastal destinations of excellence), MEDCYCLETOUR (MEDiterranean CYcle route for sustainable coastal TOURism), MEDFEST (MED Culinary heritage experiences: how to create sustainable tourist destinations), MITOMED+ (Models of Integrated Tourism in the MEDiterranean Plus), ShapeTourism (New shape and drives for the tourism sector: supporting decisions, integrating plans and ensuring sustainability), SIROCCO (Sustainable InterRegional cOastal & Cruise maritime tourism through Cooperation and joint planning), TOURISMED (Fishing Tourism in the Mediterranean region for sustainable development).

The MED Sustainable Tourism Community is featured by BleuTourMed_C3 Project, a three-year Horizontal Project financed by the ERDF within the Interreg MED Programme whose aim is to facilitate the knowledge sharing and the capitalisation of results of the 14 Modular Projects gathered by the community.

Download the presentation of the Med Sustainable Tourism Community here

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e-mail: bleutourmed@gmail.com
Twitter @MEDCommunity3_1

LinkedIn: Interreg MED Sustainable Tourism Community

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