Project Summary

Project Summary

AIM:

Created on the continuation of the BlueTourMED project, The MED Sustainable Tourism Community is the second generation of an horizontal project aiming to find solutions for the protection and promotion of natural and cultural resources in the Mediterranean area through a coherent strategy of Community Building, Communication and Capitalisation.

What is the goal of the MED Sustainable Tourism Community?

"Despite its economic and social importance, tourism development is exerting undue pressures on natural and built environment. These pressures may threaten the quality of life of local populations, degrade the tourism assets and, by consequence, affect negatively future tourism developments. Exploiting the full potential of tourism requires an innovative approach and sustainable basis. Therefore, effective strategies and targeted integrated actions should be developed and implemented across the Mediterranean region."

Created in November 2016 within the framework of the Interreg MED Programme, the MED Sustainable Tourism Community has been renewed for a three-year period till June 2022 to make tourism a real driver for inclusive and sustainable growth. 

Since 2019, five new territorial cooperation projects have joined the Community that now gathers 22 projects co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), almost 300 organisations (public authorities, private companies, universities, NGOs and international organisations) active in 12 European-Mediterranean coastal areas. Besides, two Strategic Projects, approved in October 2019, focusing on governance of sustainable tourism will join forces with the Community. 

Role of NECSTouR:

The project partners are the Deputacion of Barcelona (DIBA), Arco Latino, the Mediterranean Universities Union (UNIMED), Plan Bleu, University of Thessaly (UTH), the Adriatic Ionian Euroregion (AIE), the Regional Development Agency of Green Karst (Slovenia) and NECSTouR.

NECSTouR permanent secretariat is one of the new partners in the community, leading the work package aiming for the capitalisation of the knowledge generated by the modular projects into tourism and cohesion policies at different level of decision (local, regional, national and European). The capitalisation will be made through cooperation events and regional working groups.

Role of NECSTouR:

STC Handbook on EU Funding

The Handbook informs public authorities and tourism stakeholders in the Mediterranean about funding opportunities for projects contributing to sustainable tourism using two of the most important EU funding instruments, the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). They offer important funding opportunities for tourism at local and regional level. The guidance aims to inspire and advise readers to best prepare for absorbing these funds at regional and local levels.

Taxonomy Latest Updates


News and Best Practices

HERIT-DATA Final Conference

The Final Conference of the Interreg MED Herit Data Project will be held on the 7th April 2022 in Madrid, right after PANORAMED final event. Online participation possible.

More info to come soon on their website.

Registrations open here: https://form.jotform.com/220553834001343 

 

WINTER MED Final Project and Capitalisation Event

On the 31st of May, the INTERREG WINTER MED project will hold its Final Project and Capitalisation Event "Shared vision and commitment to year-round sustainable tourism in Mediterranean island destinations and beyond" in Rhodes, Greece.

Launch of the Interreg Euro-MED Academy

The Interreg Euro-MED academy is a joint initiative of the Interreg MED Communities and Panoramed for supporting transfer and capitalisation activities. NECSTouR is involved in two modules.

BEST MED Sustainable Path and Cultural Route Model (MED S&C Path)

The MED S&C Path Model further develop an approach to support the sustainable management of Mediterranean routes and paths. It's built upon previous approaches and outputs, such as the platform developed within MITOMED+ (one of NECSTouR previous project in the Interreg MED programme).

BEST MED Seminar on the development of a Network of Sustainable Tourism Observatories in the MED

The BEST MED project seminar “Developing a Network of Sustainable Tourism Observatories in the Mediterranean. Data management and sharing for sustainable tourism” is taking place on the 16th December from 9:00 to 14:30 CET. As a member of the Interreg MED Sustainable Tourism project and the developer of the Tourism of Tomorrow Lab, NECSTouR is taking part in this event.

Interreg Euro-MED inaugurates a new architecture for 2021-2027

The new Euro-MED programme kicked-off in Lisbon (Portugal) in a hybrid fashion. The programme area is welcoming new members from Spain, North Macedonia and Bulgaria. In total, the Euro-MED programme is now involving 14 countries and 69 regions. It was the occasion the present a new architecture. The first calls are expected in the Spring 2022.

Call for Tenders: creation of an advocacy campaign for WINTER MED project

Our partners from the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions of Europe (CPMR) – through its Intermediterranean Commission (IMC) and Islands Commission (IC), are looking for an experienced entity specialised in advocacy in the field of Sustainable Tourism to support the WINTER MED project with the creation and implementation of an EU-wide Advocacy Campaign.

NECSTouR shares sustainable strategies at the WINTER MED Workshop in Croatia

NECSTouR was invited to take part in the 3rd transnational policy exchange workshop of the Interreg MED on Winter Islands Network for all year round Tourism ExpeRience in the MEDiterranean (WINTER MED). The WINTER MED project presented its final transnational strategy to the audience, a crucial approach in the post-covid tourism ecosystem for NECSTouR. We are ready to support this strategy through our network and our strategic actions.

Behavioural science and Nudge : what potential for a better management of tourism flows?

The HERIT-DATA partners from Florence and AVITEM just kicked off a unique experimentation : developing and testing solutions that use behavioural insights to address tourism flows-related challenges in Florence. This experimentation is accompanied by behavioural science experts from The Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) and two designers.

Online Workshop: Build Value through Sustainable Tourism

Challenges for the Italian Regions

 

NECSTouR Secretariat was speaker at this conference, delivering its recommendations for a better long-term recovery through opportunities offered by the European programming period 2021-27:

REPORT: Sustainable Tourism solutions to reduce pollution in the Mediterranean

NECSTouR organised a workshop on June 3rd during the last EU Green Week in the framework of the Interreg MED Sustainable Tourism horizontal project. Partners and experts from the Interreg MED thematic community shared outputs and policy recommendations.

NECSTouR shares its data strategy during HERIT-DATA mid-term conference

On the 9th and 10th June, the Interreg MED HERIT-DATA project held its Mid-Term Conference. We were there to share our data strategy as the Horizontal Angel for HERIT-DATA, in charge of monitoring advancements from the project to rest of the partnership of the Sustainable Tourism community of the Interreg MED Programme.