Towards sustainable maritime and coastal tourism communities

Although maritime and coastal (M&C) tourism in the Mediterranean basin, which is the world’s leading tourism destination, is a growing business and a predominant source of revenue, growth and jobs, it also represents a huge challenge. Indeed, the development of tourism in the Mediterranean could be jeopardized by several factors if not managed in an adequate and sustainable way, i.e. severe anthropic impacts and environmental risks, tourism pressure on territories, coastal erosion, worsening conditions of sea water, over exploitation of natural and cultural heritage, etc.

Although many Mediterranean tourist destinations have adopted local and regional integrated strategies for tourism development, there is no real governance for tourism activities at a wider transnational level and environmental governance is still, in practice, very fragmented. Sustainable tourism managed in an integrated way is the key to protect natural and cultural assets while using them as an economic driver. This is the rationale behind the MITOMED+ (Models of Integrated Tourism in the MEDiterranean Plus) project.

This conference is aimed to key tourism stakeholders, EU policy-makers, regional and local authorities, among others. It intends to launch a reflection on tourism sustainable management, discuss the state of the art of the EU agenda, hear experiences from different actors, and raise awareness on MITOMED+’s answer to this challenge in the Mediterranean. Besides, on this occasion, the draft integrated MED M&C tourism management model will be presented.