In light of the 2018 European Year of Cultural Heritage (EYCH 2018), NECSTouR - the Network of European Regions for Sustainable and Competitive Tourism - and the Catalan Government organised the Workshop “Better Places to Live, Better Places to Visit”, launching a Pan-European Dialogue on Tourism to find a balance between Culture, Society and Businesses for a Sustainable Tourism.
 
The event gathered around 350 participants form the cultural and the tourism private and public stakeholders, leading experts, and citizens representatives from 12 different European Countries, from local to international level and generated a social dialogue between them.
 
At the end of the day, the Barcelona Declaration on Tourism and Cultural Heritage has been presented: it summarises all the main principles and actions agreed during the day and represents a clear commitment in order to ensure the sustainability of cultural heritage and its territory and destination and to generate a beneficial balance between the culture, the host community and the tourists.

“We acknowledged that tourism is source of innovation, urban generation, investment, intercultural dialogue, and social experience. However, it has also been pointed out how the lack of integrated management and joint vision on the opportunities of tourism is a key challenge not only for business development but also for generating added value and pride.
Consequently, to build together a desired and well balanced destination, we claim for an holistic approach, involving all the new players in this discussion - such as the innovation players and the digital platforms – and all the stakeholders - private, public, academics from different related fields, and young people, as the future of the European destinations." Stated Patrick Torrent, President fo NECSTouR, on the event's conclusions.

Smart and Inclusive Governance; Generate sense of Place and Pride; Having an Holistic Vision of the Marketing Promotion and Preservation; Balance Place People and Business; Connect from People to People are the 5 Principles which have been enumerated in the Barcelona Declaration on Tourism and Cultural Heritage. Several guidelines on how to achieve them have also been listed.

Event's Material

Programme
Barcelona Declaration
Pictures
Press Release
 

PPT Presentations:

- Results from Slido
- Anne Grady
- Pit Jaspaert
- Vincent Nijs
- Aino-Marja Mattinen
- Ljubomir Nikolić
- Camille Rumani
- Manfred Schreiber
- Pepe Serra
- Terry Stevens
- José Luis Maestro

Through the outcomes of that workshop, NECSTouR members will pursue on contributing to the implementation of a Sustainable Tourism Policy around Europe and will tackle those Sustainable Development Goals related with Tourism and which are part of the Agenda 2030 by the United Nations.

In views of pursuing with the Barcelona exchanges and commitment towards the social and cultural tourism sustainability, we are glad to inform you that the European Travel Commission will organize on the 21st June in Berlin, during the European Cultural Heritage Summit, the interactive workshop “Contribution of Tourism Promotion to cultural Heritage”