On Thursday 27 May 2021, the Policy Learning Platform of the Interreg Europe program hosted an online thematic workshop on the topic of "Living rivers, a driver of sustainable regional development". As member of the Star Cities project, NECSTouR was invited to present "strategies to make sustainable riverside tourism a staple in every region".

The whole workshop focused on how to restore rivers and their ecosystem services and how it may give rise to sustainable tourism development opportunities based on the valorisation of the natural and cultural heritage of your region. Read the full report from Interreg Europe website.

Good practices on riverside tourism

Thomas Guillot, project officer of NECSTouR Permanent Secretariat, showcased a wide array of solutions to boost riverside tourism identified by STAR Cities project partners and NECSTouR members. You can rewatch the intervention here.

Per the report : "From cultural festivals to valorise water-linked industrial heritage to the establishment of governance structures like destination management organisations in riverside cities. From collaborative platforms to engage communities to trails and excursions to discover rivers and streams. The options for developing and launching a well-rounded sustainable tourism strategy with rivers at its core are extremely varied and they can all contribute to accelerating the socio-economic recovery in the regions".

The rest of the workshop showcased a working group on "Water-linked heritage and sustainable riverside tourism" and many competent speaker include Claire Baffert from the WWF Europe and Máté Tas from the European Commission's DG REGIO who spoke about the future European Structural and Investment Funds ("Tourism is embedded in territorial development strategies").

Our presentation available here.