bleutourmed midterm conference re-connecting tourism...

of 13

BleuTourMed MidTerm Conference

Re-connecting tourism: Promoting evidence based policies for sustainable development

Rome, May 29-30th 2018

Draft version 2018-03-29

Tourism is about hospitality and welcoming visitors who travel to enjoy unique environmental and

cultural heritage, as well as the lifestyle of a specific place. The MED Sustainable Tourism Community

of 18 Interreg MED-funded projects’ aims to make both hosts and visitors enjoying the

Mediterranean responsibly! A much-needed action as tourism is alternatively perceived as a blessing

and as a curse.

At a macro-economic level, tourism is a strategic industry for the Mediterranean region responsible

for the 11% of its GDP, however it can also entail long-term negative transformations on local

economies, societies and ecosystems. Therefore, improving the sustainability of tourism can have

positive effects on the regional economic system and environment.

The MED Sustainable Tourism Community, was created in November 2016 and it comprises almost a

hundred organisations (public authorities, private companies, universities and international

organisations) in nine Euro-Mediterranean countries and it strives to make policy makers, scientists

and practitioners join forces to design policies and management strategies for a sustainable tourism.

Most notably, the Community’s members are leading the development of common tools to monitor

the tourism industry, they are studying and testing new tourism models and they are actively

engaging policy makers and managers in a constant dialogue to make tourism a real driver for

sustainable development.

of 13

The MED Sustainable Tourism Community’s Midterm Conference

The Midterm Conference organized by BleuTourMed project is the first capitalization event of the

MED Sustainable Tourism Community. It will focus on the adequacy between monitoring processes

and management practices to improve the sustainability of tourism models trying to answer to 2

main questions:

1. Monitoring the sustainability of tourism: what are the knowledge gaps of policy-making

processes? How to bridge the data gaps on tourism?

2. How to manage environmental-cultural-social impacts of tourism in the Mediterranean

region?

Knowing the main current knowledge and data gaps on tourism in the Mediterranean is a key issue

for the MED Sustainable Tourism Community in order to feed decision-making processes and

propose alternative tourism models in line with policy-makers’ expectations.

On the other hand, identifying relevant indicators, developing effective data collection mechanisms

and identifying the impacts of tourism in the region is key to the implementation of alternative,

sustainable and responsible tourism models.

Overall objective: The Midterm Conference of the MED Sustainable Tourism Community aim is to present the state-of-

play of the implementation of the projects involved in the community and to discuss the preliminary

recommendation of the Med Community coming from the projects’ first results.

Through a political and technical debate the MED Sustainable Tourism community outputs will be put

into perspective in order to contribute to the promotion of evidence based policies related to

Sustainable Tourism in the Mediterranean.

To this extent, projects representatives, external experts, and Tourism Sector Stakeholders will

interact in moderated discussions divided in 3 main topical panels and a high level round-table, in

order to influence policy makers and transferring their results through main recommendation as well

as to create learning opportunities.

PANEL 1 – Monitoring the sustainability of tourism: what are the knowledge gaps of policy-

making processes? How to bridge the data gaps on tourism?

PANEL 2 – The mass « sea-sand-sun » tourism model and its related pressures in the

Mediterranean region: an integrated vision of the impacts of tourism to build territorial

and regional development strategies

PANEL 3 – From the identification to the implementation of innovative management and

planning strategies to reduce the impacts of tourism in the Mediterranean region

HIGH LEVEL ROUND TABLE – When is tourism really welcome? Political and economic

solutions to make tourism sustainable

of 13

AGENDA - DAY 1 - May 29th

13:30 - 14:30 Registration

14:30 - 15:30 WELCOMING SPEECHES AND INTRODUCTION

Welcome note - President of the UNINT and Unimed hosting partner

Strategy for sustainable tourism of the Tuscany region – Manuela Bigi, Tuscany Region, representing PANORAMED (tbc)

Sustainable tourism in the Mediterranean: State of play and strategic directions – Julien le Tellier, UN Environment/Mediterranean Action Plan Coordinating Unit (tbc)

Presentation of the MED Sustainable Tourism Community and first achievements – Roberto Grassi, Arco Latino, BleuTourMed lead partner

15:30 - 16:00 Coffee break

16:00 - 18:00 PANEL 1 – Monitoring the sustainability of tourism: what are the knowledge gaps of policy-making processes? How to bridge the data gaps on tourism? – #datagapsinpolicies

Moderator:

Mr. Josep Rodríguez, Responsible for International Relations, Tourism Department of Barcelona Provincial Council

Panellists :

Mr. Dirk Glaesser, Director for Sustainable Tourism Programme at UNWTO and Head of Team UNWTO International Network of Sustainable Tourism Observatories (tbc)

Ms. Nagore Espinosa, Coordinator of the International Network on Regional Economics, Mobility and Tourism (InRoute) (tbc)

Mr. Davide Strangis, Executive Secretary, Intermediterranean Commission, Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR), representing CO-EVOLVE (tbc)

Ms. Ana Moniche, Leader of NECSTouR Working Group Indicators, and Government of Andalusia, representing MITOMED+ (tbc)

Mr. Jan Van der Borg, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Department of Economics, representing ShapeTourism (tbc)

Mr. Marjan Dumanić, as senior consultant of RERA S.D. Split Dalmatia County, Lead partner of SIROCCO, representing SIROCCO (tbc)

Guest challengers:

Mrs. Chariklia Giasirani, South Aegean Region, Associated Partner of BleuTourMed (tbc)

Mr Luca Santarossa, Italian Federation of Parks, representing Destimed (tbc)

Rapporteur of a community building working group

of 13

AGENDA of the Midterm Conference – DAY 2 (May 30th)

09:00 - 11:00 PANEL 2 – The mass « sea-sand-sun » tourism model and its related pressures in the Mediterranean region: an integrated vision of the impacts of tourism to build territorial and regional development strategies – #tourismpressures

Moderator:

Nelly Bourlion, Biodiversity program officer, UNEP-MAP-Plan Bleu (tbc)

Panellists:

Mrs. Anael Le Bihan, Association of the Mediterranean Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ASCAME), Associated Partner of BleuTourMed (tbc)

Mr. Frederic Gallo, Senior expert at UNEP-MAP – Regional Activity Center for Sustainable Consumption and Production (tbc)

Mr. Giovanni Ruggieri, Observatory on Tourism in the European Islands (OTIE), representing ALTER ECO (tbc)

Mrs. Patrizia Ziveri, Autonomous University of Barcelona, representing BLUEISLANDS (tbc)

Mr. Brian Restall, Malta Regional Development and Dialogue Foundation, representing CASTWATER (tbc)

Mr. Manuel Sapiano, Sustainable Energy and Water Conservation Unit, representing CONSUME-LESS (tbc)

Guest challengers:

Mrs. Rossana Biagioni, Head of Tourism department, Metropolitan City of Florence, Associated Partner of BleuTourMed (tbc)

Mrs. Aggeliki Veneti, Regional Development Fund, Region of Thessaly, representing BLUEMED (tbc)


11:00 - 11:30 Coffee Break

of 13

11:30 - 13:00 HIGH LEVEL ROUND TABLE - When is tourism really welcome? Political and economic solutions to make tourism sustainable

Moderator:

Journalist

High level representatives:

M. Francesco Palumbo, Director General of Italian Ministry of Tourism (tbc)

Mrs. Anna Athanasopoulou, Head of Tourism Unit DG Growth, European Commission (tbc)

Mrs Agnès Weil – Club Med, Director for Sustainable Development (tbc)


13:00 - 14:00 Lunch

14:00 - 16:00 PANEL 3 – From the identification to the implementation of innovative management and planning strategies to reduce the impacts of tourism in the Mediterranean region – #tourismmanagement

Moderator:

M. Andrea Di Girolamo, Secretariat of the Adriatic Ionian Euroregion

Panellists :

Mrs. Maria Luisa Lo Savio, Italian National coordinator of TSG EUSAIR Pillar 4, Puglia Region (tbc)

Ms. Cinzia DE MARZO, EU Legal Advisor and Tourism Expert on Sustainable Tourism (tbc)

Mr. Alain Gensane, Syndicat Mixte Canigó Grand Site, representing EmbleMatiC (tbc)

Mr. Jesús Freire, European Cyclists’ Federation, representing MEDCYCLETOUR (tbc)

Mr. Alessandro Melillo, Promozione Internazionale Sicilia–Mondo (PRISM), representing TOURISMED (tbc)

Mr. Luca Santarossa, Italian Federation of Parks, representing DESTIMED (tbc)

Guest challengers:

Mrs Irene Nicotra, Province of Livorno (tbc)

Nika Razpotnik Visković, Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, representing MEDFEST (tbc)


16:00 - 16:30 Coffee Break

16:30 - 17:30 Interactive visual Wrap up

of 13

Moderators of the 3 sessions and Graphic facilitator

17:30 - 18:00 The future steps of the tourism community: the way forward Plan Bleu and Arco Latino Q/A with audience

of 13

PANEL 1 – Monitoring the sustainability of tourism: what are the knowledge gaps of policy-making processes? How to bridge the data gaps on tourism?

Time Schedule: DAY 1 - 16:00 – 18:00

Moderator: Mr. Josep Rodríguez, Responsible for International Relations, Tourism Department of

Barcelona Provincial Council

The challenges for the success of the future European and Mediterranean tourism will pass through innovation, digitalization, accessibility of information and other topics related to data management. The European Commission has recently launched the initiatives on Collaborative Economy and Digital Single Market, stating the importance of those topics. What is currently the state of the art in Europe? And how advanced are the Mediterranean Countries in this topic? There are many examples of past and current initiatives dealing with data management for tourism. Were they useful? Were they successful?

The MED Sustainable Tourism Community needs to know the reasons of the success or failures of past projects, in order to learn from the successful stories and to add innovative results to the European panorama. Several projects of the MED Sustainable Tourism Community are working on data collection and analysis as scientific basis for developing pilot activities, feeding decision-making processes and proposing alternative sustainable tourism models to the decision makers. This session, dedicated to the data for tourism, aims to give to the Community a comprehensive view on available tools, case studies and key success factors.

Key questions: A. The needs for data on tourism in Mediterranean political frameworks and the EU trends.

Why do we need data? What are the future trends for data related to tourism? B. Indicators in the tourism sectors: how to contribute to decision-making processes with

evidence-based results? C. What are the methodologies to individuate the important data?

Panellists Possible topics Mr. Dirk Glaesser (tbc) Director for Sustainable Tourism Programme at UNWTO and Head of Team UNWTO International Network of Sustainable Tourism Observatories

The contribution of the Measuring Sustainable Tourism initiative to respond to tourism stakeholders, understand and monitor sustainable tourism. How to improve policy making based on sustainability indicators?

Ms. Nagore Espinosa (tbc) Coordinator of the International Network on Regional Economics, Mobility and Tourism (InRoute).

The development of a system of information and statistics on tourism at a subnational level. Gaps and challenges for adapting data at destination level.

Ms. Ana Moniche (tbc) Leader of NECSTouR Working Group Indicators, and Government of Andalusia, representing MITOMED+

What are the current needs for data in the Mediterranean tourism sector? The measure of the sustainability in Coastal and Maritime Tourism Destinations. How to implement an indicators system? The MITOMED+ indicator system built up on the ETIS toolkit to be applied in coastal destinations.

Mr. Jan Van der Borg (tbc) Department of Economics, Ca’ Foscari University of Venic, representing SHAPETOURISM

Available indicator systems and how they can contribute to destination management. The main challenges in calculating indicators. The Smart Integrated Tourism Data System (SITDS) and its application in cultural destinations.

Mr. Marjan Dumanić (tbc) Senior consultant, Public Institution RERA S.D. for Coordination and Development of Split Dalmatia County, representing SIROCCO

How indicators can be adjusted to a specific sector: the cruise sector? Mediterranean cruise maritime tourism database: a tool for enhancing decision-making of cruise tourism actors.

of 13

Mr. Davide Strangis (tbc) Executive Secretary, Intermediterranean Commission Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR), representing CO-EVOLVE

The increasing relevance for expanding tourism statistics beyond the current economic focus to include social and environmental aspects. The use of sustainability data for improving the tourism management. The Tourism Sustainable Toolkit to be applied at Mediterranean scale.

Guest challengers: Possible topics Mrs. Chariklia Giasirani (tbc) South Aegean Region, Associated Partner of BleuTourMed

The experience of South Aegean region in the implementation of ETIS indicators

Mr. Luca Santarossa (tbc) Italian Federation of Parks, representing DESTIMED

The system for monitoring the sustainability of Ecotourism products and setting “Mediterranean ecotourism destination” standards


of 13

PANEL 2 – The mass « sea-sand-sun » tourism model and its related pressures in the Mediterranean region: an integrated vision of the impacts of tourism to build territorial and regional development strategies

Time Schedule: DAY 2 - 09:00 – 11:00

Moderator: Nelly Bourlion, Biodiversity program officer, UNEP-MAP-Plan Bleu (tbc)

The second capitalization session of BleuTourMed Midterm Conference will focus on the impacts of tourism on the Mediterranean region and the issues encountered by localities and territories for the management of tourism impacts and pressures.

This session will show the limits of the mass tourism system in the Mediterranean region. Indeed, tourist flows in the Mediterranean region are usually following a « sea-sand-sun » seasonal pattern, creating multiple pressures on tourism destinations, and degrading the natural and cultural heritages of the region.

What exactly makes the current tourism model a threat to the Mediterranean natural and cultural heritages? How to catch stakeholders’ attention on the necessity of changing tourism habits and turning to more sustainable practices?

Key questions:

A. The challenges of stakeholders’ engagement and awareness raising on the impacts of tourism on Mediterranean destinations.

B. Integrated analysis of the impacts of tourism on land-based, coastal and marine ecosystems. What are the impact of mass tourism and seasonality?

C. The needs for resource efficiency in tourism destinations – current conflicts of use, especially regarding energy, water, land and ecosystems.

Panellists Possible topics Mrs. Anael Le Bihan (tbc) Association of the Mediterranean Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ASCAME), Associated Partner of BleuTourMed

The challenges of stakeholders’ engagement and awareness raising on the impacts of tourism on Mediterranean destinations: raising awareness in the private sector.

Mr. Frederic Gallo (tbc) Senior expert, UNEP-MAP-Regional Activity Center for Sustainable Consumption and Production

Tourism seasonnality and marine litter management

Mr. Giovanni Ruggieri (tbc) Observatory on Tourism in the European Islands (OTIE), representing ALTER ECO

Integrated analysis of the impacts of tourism on land-based, coastal and marine ecosystems. What are the impact of mass tourism and seasonality?

Mrs. Patrizia Ziveri (tbc) Autonomous University of Barcelona, representing BLUEISLANDS

Integrated analysis of the impacts of tourism on land-based, coastal and marine ecosystems. What are the impact of mass tourism and seasonality? Mapping coastal resources and users (determine the extent of seasonality in MSW generation as an effect of tourism by quantifying the issue)

Mr. Brian Restall (tbc) Malta Regional Development and Dialogue Foundation, representing CASTWATER

The needs for resource efficiency in tourism destinations – current conflicts of use, especially regarding energy, water, land and ecosystems. Development of knowledge resources for PAs to support policy transfer on tourism water management

Mr. Manuel Sapiano (tbc) Sustainable Energy and Water Conservation Unit, representing CONSUME-LESS

The needs for resource efficiency in tourism destinations – current conflicts of use, especially regarding energy, water, land and ecosystems.

of 13

Guest challengers: Possible topics: Mrs. Rossana Biagioni (tbc) Head of Tourism department, Metropolitan City of Florence, Associated Partner of BleuTourMed

Dealing with tourism seasonnality in a non-coastal destination.

Mrs Aggeliki Veneti (tbc) Regional Development Fund, Region of Thessaly, representing BLUEMED

The challenges of stakeholders’ engagement and awareness raising on the impacts of tourism on Mediterranean destinations. Preserving underwater natural and cultural heritages from the impacts of tourism.


of 13

PANEL 3 – From the identification to the implementation of innovative management and planning strategies to reduce the impacts of tourism in the Mediterranean region

Time schedule: DAY 2 - 14:00 – 16:00

Moderator: M. Andrea Di Girolamo, Secretariat of the Adriatic Ionian Euroregion

Whilst tourism plays a key role in the Mediterranean’s economic development, it also puts considerable pressure on natural resources and the environment. Promoting ecologically sustainable tourism is now becoming crucial and vital in this area which is experiencing loss of biodiversity, the effect of desertification and the diminishing reserves of water.

How to reduce the pressures related to tourism in the Mediterranean region? Finding innovative management models and strategies is extremely important in order to reduce the pressures of the environmental-cultural-social impacts of tourism. In this direction, several projects of the MED Sustainable Tourism Community are working on new planning methods and alternative tourism models, persuading decision-makers to adopt new strategies on sustainable tourism.

The session is dedicated to explore innovative tourism management and planning tools aiming to face the environmental pressure of tourism caused by waste, coastal and marine pollution, degradation of ecosystems, massive tourist flows, etc. The participants will analyse the alternative methods developed by the Community and by other actors exploring which are the main strategies, complementary to the existing political framework and territorial development plans and territorial development plans that should be implemented in order to limit the negative impacts of tourism.

During the session more effective tourism management methods for alternative forms of tourism with less impact on ecosystems will be illustrated in order to give an overview of developed and available tools, best practices and key strategies complementary with already existing policies to limit the negative impacts of tourism. Finally, the session also will also investigate how the alternative tourism management strategies implemented at local scales can be transferred at national and regional scales.

Key questions: A. How to reduce the environmental impact of tourism, and address such issues as waste

generation, coastal and marine pollution and degradation of ecosystems? B. Alternative solutions to protect the Mediterranean natural and cultural heritages: how to

deconcentrate tourist flows and tackle the seasonality of inland, coastal and maritime tourism.

C. Towards a more sustainable and responsible tourism management: How to improve the capacity of tourism actors?

Panellists: Possible topics:

Mrs. Maria Luisa Lo Savio (tbc)

Italian National coordinator of TSG EUSAIR Pillar 4, Puglia Region

Linking EUSAIR with the need of alternative tourism models

– needs of EUSAIR for capitalisation. Management tools for

EUSAIR.

Ms. Cinzia DE MARZO (tbc) EU Legal Advisor and Tourism Expert on Sustainable Tourism

Expert in European Tourism Indicators System for

sustainable destination management.

Mr. Alain Gensane (tbc) Syndicat Mixte Canigó Grand Site, representing EMbleMatiC

Implementation of an alternative tourism model – mountains, diversification of tourism offer

Mr. Jesús Freire (tbc) European Cyclists' Federation, representing

Implementation of an alternative tourism model – cycling tourism, international cooperation

of 13

MEDCYCLETOUR

Mr. Alessandro Melillo (tbc) Promozione Internazionale Sicilia–Mondo (PRISM), representing TOURISMED

Implementation of an alternative tourism model – fisheries

Mr. Luca Santarossa (tbc) Italian Federation of Parks, representing DESTIMED

Implementation of an alternative tourism model – certification systems

Guest challengers: Possible topics:

Ms. Irene Nicotra (tbc) Province of Livorno

Policy and territories’ needs for alternative tourism management models

Mrs. Nika Razpotnik Visković (tbc)

Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Representing MEDFEST

Implementation of an alternative tourism model –

certification systems


of 13

High level round table: When is tourism really welcome? Political and economic solutions to make tourism sustainable

Time Schedule: DAY 2 - 11:30 - 13:00

Moderator: journalist

The round table is about how sustainability in the tourism sector is perceived as a factor of positive leverage by high level players, and to what extent it can be a real factor of positive growth. The objective is to raise the attention of the wide public towards this topic, in particular the sustainability of tourism in the present and in the future trends.

Four types of high level representatives will discuss on the issue of sustainable tourism in the Mediterranean. This debate will include:

Representative of National authority (public sector),

Representative of the private sector,

Representative of International Organisation,

Representative of the EU institutions (DG).

The speakers will bring their experiences, and successfull case studies, in which the sustainability has

promoted a ligh level tourism, respecting the local population, the local environment, and making

the economy growing. They will bring proposals, ideas, plans and strategies for the present and for

the future of a sustainable Mediterranean area, addressing the tòpic from the point of view of the

Organization they represent.

Speakers:

M. Francesco Palumbo, Director General of Italian Ministry of Tourism (tbc)

Mrs Agnès Weil, Club Med, Director for Sustainable Development (tbc)

Mrs. Anna Athanasopoulou, Head of Tourism Unit DG Growth, European Commission (tbc)


bleutourmed midterm conference re-connecting tourism...

Documents