The great wealth of ecological and cultural heritage and the beauty of the marine and coastal destinations on the Mediterranean Sea attract an increasing flow of tourists from all over the world every year. How can we promote sustainable and responsible tourism in the face of mass tourism affecting the region?
Trying to find answers to this challenge, Plan Bleu is proud to release, with its partners Arco latino, Diba – Provincial council of Barcelona, Panteion – University of Aegean, Unimed and Adriatic Ionian Euroregion, four factsheets promoting policy recommendations for a sustainable tourism in the Mediterranean region:
- Ensuring an effective monitoring of tourism sustainability in the Mediterranean region,
- Promoting alternative tourism models to reduce pressures in the Mediterranean region,
- Tourism as a strategic driver for inclusive responsible and sustainable growth in the Mediterranean region,
- Governance as a tool for sustainable and responsible tourism in the Mediterranean region,
These policy recommendations were successfully elaborated with BleuTourMed projectand thanks to the collaboration of external tourism experts and the commitment of 17 EU Mediterranean projects: ALTER ECO, BLUEISLANDS, BLUEMED, CASTWATER, COASTING, CO-EVOLVE, CONSUME-LESS, DestiMED, EMbleMatiC, HERIT-DATA, INHERIT, MEDCYCLETOUR, MEDFEST, MITOMED+, ShapeTourism, SIROCCO, TOURISMED.
Throughout a number of knowledge-sharing events, and thanks to their strong involvement, participants built a Sustainable Tourism Community across the Mediterranean region. Benefiting from the synergies created, 150 community members were able to disseminate the results of their projects and capitalize on them to elaborate these factsheets.
To promote a change on the topic, the living Community brought together, in different working groups, a comprehensive network of experts from 11 countries and composed of research centres, NGOs, local authorities, national authorities and international organizations. Their work, enriched by the diversity of people involved and the experience learned from case studies, is paving the way to greater sustainability in coastal and maritime Mediterranean tourism.
