Within the framework of the European Week of Regions and Cities, on 12 October 2022, NECSTouR is organising a workshop and final event of the Sustainable Tourism Community (STC): "The transition towards a smarter and greener sustainable tourism ecosystem in the Mediterranean".

The 90-minute fully online workshop will be in English, Spanish and Italian, with interpretation between these languages.

Registration is now open! REGISTER HERE

About the Workshop

The workshop fosters the dialogue on the transition towards a greener and more digital sustainable tourism with a focus on the Mediterranean basin and its concrete case study of the Sustainable Tourism Community (STC):

• What are the European decision makers expecting to happen in the European regions?
• Can the experience of the STC be considered a case study, an example for further replicability?
• What do the stakeholders need to be supported in this transition?

The high-level panellists will debate around these aspects, making final proposals, and participants will learn concrete examples of successful stories of Digital and Green Tourism and how this contributes to a sustainable and balanced growth of the Mediterranean region.

We are pleased to welcome our speakers:

• Mr. Tim Fairhurst - Secretary General at European Tourism Association (ETOA)
• Ms. Elena Kountoura - Member of the European Parliament at the Committee on Transport and Tourism
• Ms. Laura Hagemann Arellano - Policy Officer, Territorial and Urban Development Policy at Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (REGIO)
• Mr. Eugenio Giani - President of Tuscay Region and Member of the Committee of Regions

The workshop will be moderated by Cristina Núñez, NECSTouR Director, and José Francisco Rodriguez Lopez, Responsible for International Relations at the Tourism Department Barcelona Provincial Council.

Context

Since 2016, an experiment of gathering funded projects in thematic communities in the Mediterranean region is underway, thanks to the ERDF funds available through the INTERREG MED programme.

The rationale behind this decision was guided by the belief that the collaboration among several actors and projects under the same community could amplify connections, spread the knowledge, and strengthen the cohesion through regions thanks to the replicability and the capitalisation of the best practices. The biggest community is dedicated to sustainable tourism: with 30 projects, investments for +50 million euros, involving more than 200 entities and hundreds of other public and private stakeholders.

The challenges the Mediterranean region is facing are countless: climate change, loss of biodiversity, youth unemployment, depopulation of rural and internal areas, economic disparities, just to mention a few. Through this community for Sustainable Tourism, we are making efforts to reverse those trends: dozens of proposals for digitalisation, for a green transition, for sustainable actions in favour of local populations, their economies and the local environments have been planned, tested and evaluated. Multi-level governance systems for involvement and coordination of local stakeholders are at the basis of every action.

As a consequence of these efforts, a regional ecosystem of sustainable tourism is growing in the region: examples of strong collaborations for a digital and green transition between different actors at technical and policy level, attempts of capitalisation of best practices, shared messages such as the “MED DECLARATION for a smarter and greener sustainable tourism ecosystem in the Mediterranean region” are tangible evidences of its existence and its maturity to dialogue with high level representatives of European institutions.

To Register

To participate you must create a profile for the European Week of Regions and Cities event. The more complete your profile, the better the automatic matchmaking will work suggesting sessions and participants to engage with. With your profile you will be able to:

• Get in touch with other participants and schedule one-to-one meetings
• Browse the programme and start building your personal agenda

This year there is an online programme and an onsite programme with a limited number of events open for physical attendance. Please check both and book your seat if you can join in Brussels. Registering for a session on the onsite programme gives access to the link for connecting online for that session too.

Important: Physical seats are ensured on a first-come first-served basis. We recommend that our members book your places as of now, as registration will also be open to the general public as of 31 August.

For more information on how to register and on how to use Swapcard, please read the available userguide.

How to create your profile

• To access the event on Swapcard, click here.

• Click on the button “JOIN THE EVENT” and enter your email, first name, family name and organisation. Do not forget to read the terms and conditions.

• Your profile has been created and you are now registered to the event. You can complete your profile, browse the programme and register to sessions.

• You can visit the platform any time before and during the event. The virtual exhibition will be accessible from Swapcard too from mid-September.

A series of events will be hosted by our members who will be providing interventions. These events will be followed by the NECSTouR secretariat. Check our selection here.