The Declaration
The Barcelona Declaration "Better Places to Live, Better Places to Visit" seeks to demonstrate what tourism and cultural heritage sectors can achieve by working more closely together, for the benefit of European citizens and cultural heritage as well as businesses, visitors and destinations. Moreover, it assumes the collective commitment of both sectors towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
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Sign the Declaration
We invite all those who care for Tourism of tomorrow to sign, support and widely share the Declaration.
Regenerative Tourism
In 2018, the Barcelona Declaration “Better Places to Live Better Places to Visit” was created from the willingness of NECSTouR members to respond to the residents’ concerns about the uses of territorial assets for tourism activity. Since then, local community wellbeing as well as the climate emergency and business innovation are driving the transformation of NECSTouR members' tourism strategies. This is also reflected in their governance models and marketing focus, moving from a sustainable tourism approach to a regenerative, value-driven model.
Regenerative Tourism Conference
Considering the important moment of reflection and transformation of tourism models to regenerative tourism ones, Catalonia and NECSTouR organised the Conference “Regenerative Tourism contributing to the wellbeing of the community”. The event was a day of reflection aiming to inspire, share and learn how tourism destinations and businesses are working towards a “value driven” tourism model wishing to contribute to the wellbeing of the community (society, environment and business), the so called “Regenerative Tourism”. This offered a source of inspiration and showcased how territories could deliver on the targets of the Tourism Transition Pathway.
Find the full recordings here.
Regenerative Tourism Conference Documents
Conference Report
This paper reports on the Regenerative Tourism Conference, organised in Barcelona in September 2022, by the Catalan Tourism Board and NECSTouR. The outcomes of the event are presented through personas that represent all players in destinations as part of a living system. The personas described are DMOs, Businesses, Associations, the Local Community, the Visitor and the Place. All of them were directly or indirectly portrayed during the conference. In this paper, each of them has been explained by reflecting on their characteristics and challenges and are accompanied by real-life cases.
Carbon Footprint
This Document presents the CO2 emission and offsetting data from the Regenerative Tourism Conference organised by the Directorate General for Tourism, the Catalan Tourism Board and NECSTouR in collaboration with the ENI CBC MED RESTART MED! project. This has been the first event we have organised where we have calculated our Co2 emissions and offset them through the Voluntary Greenhouse Gas Emissions Compensation Program of the Catalan Office for Climate Change (OCCC).
Visual Recordings
The Visual Recordings have captured live on spot the essence of the discussion and Calls for Action.
The Background
The Barcelona Declaration acknowledges previous existing declarations and documents related to tourism and cultural heritage from bodies such as Council of Europe, European Commission, Europa Nostra, European Cultural Tourism Network (ECTN), International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), among others.
MOMENTUM
2018 European Year of Cultural Heritage (EYCH). Acknowledging the unique momentum of the 2018 European Year of Cultural Heritage, NECSTouR - the European Network of Regions for Competitive and Sustainable Tourism - took the initiative to establish a Pan European Dialogue to foster greater synergy between tourism and cultural stakeholders.
Key Events:
- 19th April 2018: High level event in Barcelona organized by NECSTouR and the Region Catalonia “Better Places to Be, Better Places to Visit” aiming at setting up the Pan European dialogue on cultural heritage and tourism and present the first draft of the Barcelona Declaration to be upgraded along the year.
- 11th October 2018: Thematic Conference in Brussels organized by NECSTouR and the Region of Galicia, hosted by Fundación Galicia Europa “Local-led initiatives on Tourism and Cultural Heritage: a Legacy for Europe” aiming at showcasing existing regional initiatives, gathering the EU institutions reflections on tourism and cultural heritage after the 2018 EYCH and releasing the final version of the Barcelona Declaration.
News and Best Practices
Sustainable Cultural Tourism Awards 2023 highlight initiatives towards Slower, Smarter and Regenerative Tourism
Last 19 October, Paphos – the European Capital of Smart Tourism 2023 – hosted the award ceremony of the Sustainable Cultural Tourism Awards 2023.
This year’s edition focused on ‘Smart Tourism – Smart Destinations: Cultural Heritage & Creativity, Digitalisation, Sustainability’.
NECSTouR Activity Report 2021
In 2021, through working together with our members and partners, NECSTouR accomplished our strategic objectives and a variety of important achievements. Our Activity Report 2021 outlines this work and provides an overview of what that went into making 2021 another successful year for us.
Download the Activity Report 2021
The European Commission published the first pledges to the Tourism Transition Pathway
The Commission published a first summary of stakeholders committments to the Tourism Transition Pathway (TTP) to highlight interesting messages and great examples, including the one from NECSTouR and those Members Regions that already shared their committment to the TPP.
Conference: “Regenerative Tourism contributing to the wellbeing of the community”
On 23 September 2022, within the framework of the NECSTouR Extraordinary General Assembly Meeting in Barcelona, Spain, Catalonia Tourism Board will host a conference entitled “Regenerative Tourism contributing to the wellbeing of the community”.
NECSTouR Thematic Conference "Building tourism destinations’ resilience to respond to crisis: How do you recover competitiveness by regenerating your business model?"
In the framework of our Annual General Meeting 2022, NECSTouR organised a Thematic Conference on “Building tourism destinations’ resilience to respond to crisis: How do you recover competitiveness by regenerating your business model?”, hosted by the Ringkøbing-Skjern Municipality on 1st of June 2022 in Ringkøbing.
European Cultural Tourism Awards 2022
‘Relaunching European Tourism through Cultural Heritage & Digitalisation’ is the overall theme of the European Cultural Tourism Awards 2022.
EU-Level Workshop: "Unbalanced tourism growth at destination level - root causes, impacts, existing solutions and good practices"
On 20 May a hybrid EU-level workshop on unbalanced tourism growth will take place in Brussels (Albert Borschette Congress Centre, Rue Froissart 36, 1040), and will start at 9:00 CEST and conclude by 13:00 CEST.
NECSTouR and its member Regions’ co-implementation of the Tourism Transition Pathway
Following the publication by the European Commission in February of the Tourism Transition Pathway (TTP), and their recent invitation for us to express our concrete commitment by answering their call for commitments survey, on 11th May we organised a successful webinar "How NECSTouR and our Regions can Implement the Tourism Transition Pathway Through Interregional Cooperation".
NECSTouR Vice President Torrent Speaks at High Level Debate at the United Nations Headquarters
On 4 May, NECSTouR Vice President Mr Torrent spoke at the High-level Thematic Debate “Putting sustainable and resilient tourism at the heart of an inclusive recovery”, convened by the President of the General Assembly at the UN Headquarters in New York.
Webinar "How NECSTouR and our Regions can Implement the Tourism Transition Pathway Through Interregional Cooperation".
On Wednesday 11th May online from 11-12:30 CEST NECSTouR offers our members the chance to demonstrate your Region's efforts in sustainability leadership to the European Tourism Agenda, through our webinar "How NECSTouR and our Regions can Implement the Tourism Transition Pathway Through Interregional Cooperation".
More information will follow soon, in the meantime register here.
NECSTouR Exchanges with European Hotels and Restaurants on Joint Strategies towards Tourism Recovery
On 28 April, NECSTouR Vice-President Torrent, joined the General Assembly of HOTREC in Prague. He brought an overview on how NECSTouR is accelerating the European Tourism Recovery through the implementation of the Tourism Transition Pathway and other strategies on sustainable tourism, in front of the representatives of the umbrella Association of Hotels, Restaurants, Pubs and Cafes in Europe.
Workshop on Unbalanced Tourism Growth in Coastal Destinations
Mr Patrick Torrent, Vice-President of NECSTouR will present challgenges and opprtunities from Catalonia and NECSTouR.
Media Coverage
2 November 2018
UNWTO AM Newsletter 2- UNWTO Affiliate Members are invited to join NECSTouR’s Legacy for the 2018 European Year of Cultural Heritage
15 October 2018
Travel Daily News - Barcelona declaration “Better Places to Live, Better Places to Visit”
13 October 2018
Traveling News - Barcelona Declaration “Better Places to Live, Better Places to Visit”: NECSTouR’s Legacy for the 2018 European Year of Cultural Heritage
19 April 2018
eTurboNews - New collaboration to develop expertise for sustainable tourism management
19 April 2018
Europa Press - Lanzan el programa 'Contagia tu hospitalidad' a Europa para luchar contra la 'turismofobia'
Contact Us
- If you have any questions about the Barcelona Declaration, do not hesitate to get in touch with our team.
A LEGACY FOR THE FUTURE
This Declaration aims to remain an open initiative, welcoming all stakeholders willing to engage with this commitment.
At this purpose, this webpage under NECSTouR website has been developed in order to promote the Declaration, give visibility to the supporters and gather good practices that can illustrate the implementation of the five principles.
We invite you to spread the voice by using #PlacestoLiveandVisit and to become a supporter of the initiative.
Support the Declaration
We invite all those who care for Tourism of tomorrow to sign, support and widely share the Declaration.
INVOLVED ORGANISATIONS
This initiative has been leaded by NECSTouR members of the Working Group on Cultural Tourism and Sustainability. A special recognition to the regions of Galicia, Catalonia, Andalusia, Flanders, Île-de-France, Limburg, Tuscany, Valencia and Visit Scotland, as well as the University of Girona.
The Declaration has been developed by NECSTouR members in cooperation with Europa Nostra, the European Travel Commission and the European Cultural Tourism Network, with the support of the European Heritage Alliance 3.3.
The Open Method Coordination group on Sustainable Cultural Tourism from DG EAC (European Commission) as well as the European Network for Culture and Creative Industries – RICC have also contributed to the text.
BROAD ENDORSEMENT
This initiative gathered the support of the Member of the European Parliament, Mr. Francisco José Millán Mon, the NAT Commission of the European Committee of the Regions, the European Commission DG – EAC, as well as other 20 individuals, from the Tourism sector.
