Day 2 June 9th, 2022

Mr. Francesco Cocco, General Secretary, Adriatic Ionian Euroregion

Ms. Soledad Bravo, Tourism Department General Manager, Barcelona Provincial Council

Dr. Nagore Uresandi Espinosa, CEO at IN2destination Research and Consultancy and UNWTO External Consultant

The MED Sustainable Tourism Community has advanced in many fronts, there is a good base of knowledge. However, there is still a lot to be done, specially we still need to act, so that our destinations and tourism businesses are resilient and develop tourism in a sustainable way for our common future. This talk will question and propose actions, let’s be brave to act! 

Mr. Jeremy Sampson, CEO, The Travel Foundation (online)

Mr. Arnau Teixidor, Ecosystem Programme Officer, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN-Med)

Mr. Giovanni Ruggieri, President of Observatory on Tourism for Islands Economy (OTIE) and University of Palermo Professor (online)

Dr. Damià Serrano, Experience Marketing & Research Director, Catalan Tourist Board

Moderates: Ms. Georgina Calvo, Project Officer MED Sustainable Tourism Community, Barcelona Provincial Council

Covid-19, despite the impact it has had on the tourism ecosystem, has represented a unique opportunity to rethink the model and reorient it towards sustainability. In this sense, different initiatives have emerged that formulate proposals to regenerate tourism through a socially equitable, environmentally respectful, and economically sustainable model. But, now that recovery is in sight: what have we learned from the pandemic? Has it served to speed up certain processes? What trends will remain over time? Jointly with The Future of Tourism Coalition we will know what the proposals for the tourism of the future are. Also what is the vision of the private sector on the recovery of tourism and from the natural areas that have been one of the great destinations of proximity tourism in the last two years.

This panel involves three approaches to the impacts that the covid have generated on tourism in the last 2 years: the economic approach, the environmental approach and the social and cultural one. The focus will be more on the recovery process than how deep has been the impact. It will try to debate among the main streamlines are on the table to become the tourism models more resilient, sustainable and equitable.

Mr. Konstantinos Zapounidis, Senior Project Manager, Pieriki Anaptixiaki & Researcher, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Ms. Carolina Navarro, Area Manager- Port-City, Cruises and Mobility, Valenciaport Foundation

Mr. Nicola Camatti, Researcher, University Ca’ Foscari Venice

Ms. Barbara Sarnari, Vice-President, Svimed Centro Euromediterraneo per lo Sviluppo Sostenibile, on behalf of The Energy and Water Agency

Mr. Fabio Bruno, Associate Professor, University of Calabria

Mr. Stefano Mugnoz, Researcher, University of Camerino

Moderates: Ms. Dora Papatheochari, Researcher, University of Thessaly

The Interreg Med Sustainable Tourism Community has welcomed the continuation of a series of projects with the aim to transfer their outputs to more territories of the Mediterranean and beyond. These projects were provided with the opportunity to identify their most concrete outputs, the territories that would be willing to adopt these outputs, the replicability conditions for their adoption, implement them together with the receiving territories in order to incorporate them officially into their operational programmes. The recommendations emerging from the activities of the transferring projects are considered as practices of excellence in terms of transforming ideas, methods and tools into actions that the territories can easily adopt and implement.

This panel centres on the experiences gathered by 6 transferring projects that the Med Sustainable Tourism Community welcomed one year ago and their work during this whole year for the transference of concrete tools and outputs to selected Mediterranean destinations.

Mr. Fabio Tomasi, Head of International Project Department, Area Science Park

Mr. Aldo Patruno, General Director Tourism and Culture, Puglia Region (online)

Ms. Nika Razpotnik Visković, Researcher, Research Centre of Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts

Mr. Xavier Bernard-Sans, General Secretary, Euroregion Pyrenees Mediterranean

Moderates: Ms. Paloma Zapata, CEO Sustainable Travel International

The tourism ecosystem is facing several new challenges, from climate change, to the overdemand of tourism and health and safety crises. There is an urgent need to tackle specific issues related to reduce disposable materials and waste, reducing greenhouse emissions, improve water and energy efficiency, or implement new circular economy models. The uptake of already existing tools could be the best opportunity to encourage the tourism ecosystem to properly monitor its activities and improve its environmental performance, as well as to guarantee the development of successful, competitive and resilient destinations and tourism businesses in the future.

This panel centres on specific tools that have been developed by several organisations participating in different European projects and programmes, and will evaluate how the destinations and different tourism stakeholders could adopt these tools that could support the transition towards a more sustainable tourism industry and tourism activities. By exploring how people’s lives have been positively impacted this panel will present the proven solutions that tackle the recurring sustainability problems faced by the Interreg Med destinations. The panellists will share key lessons learned and reflections when considering implementing and scaling the solutions in other destinations across the region.

Mr. Giuliano Tallone, Head of Studies, Innovation and Statistics Regional Tourism Agency, Lazio Region

Ms. Konstantina Tsakopoulou, Deputy Head of Research Studies and Documentation, Ministry of Tourism of Greece

Mr. Dario Bertocchi, Adjunct Professor of E-Tourism, University Ca’​ Foscari Venice (online)

Ms. Alba Lajusticia, Coordinator, Barcelona Tourism Observatory

Moderates: Ms. Anna Torres, Marie Curie Research Fellow, School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, University of Surrey

Although major advances have been made in terms of measuring sustainability in tourism, it could be said that there is still a lack of available and harmonised information in a Mediterranean level, especially on a coastal scale, that could provide valuable inputs for planning and management practices and the design of appropriate policies towards a more responsible and sustainable tourism model. The incorporation of quantitative and qualitative data in tourism planning is essential in order to understand coastal territories, set the vision for tourism development and implement tourism strategies at all levels and scales. The methods for measuring tourism sustainability are numerous and usually include the active participation of relevant stakeholders, thus, leading to an integrated approach of coastal and maritime areas.

This panel centres on the benefits that measuring tools can bring to the tourism destinations, specifically in the development and use of sustainable tourism indicators to inform policy. Often indicators have been used to raise awareness about sustainability issues and gain consensus about tourism impacts, but not to promote a better governance or to introduce sustainability as a priority for actual policies. This round table will discuss about how to use tourism sustainability measurements to promote better tourism policies.

Mr. Kai Böhme, Managing Director, Spatial Foresight (online)

Ms. Pascale Fauveau-Lagaye, Project Officer, Interreg MED Joint Secretariat

Mr. Thomas Guillot, Project Officer, NECSTouR – Network of European Regions for Sustainable and Competitive Tourism

Moderates: Mr. Josep Rodríguez, Coordinator MED Sustainable Tourism Community, Barcelona Provincial Council

Several EU funding programmes provide support to tourism and its stakeholders in their efforts to become greener, digital and more resilient. Now we are living a special momentum with an unprecedented amount of money coming from the Next Generation recovery funds and also the foreseen cohesion funds for the programming period 2021-2027. In this session, we will know how the EU programmes have been used in favour of the sustainable tourism in the past and it will be introduced the Handbook on the use of recovery funds & ERDF for the sustainable tourism produced by the MED Sustainable Tourism Community. There will be an opportunity too to get knowledge about the funding mechanisms for within the new Mediterranean cooperation programme Euro-MED.