Proximity and ecotourism: a sustainable way to discover Mediterranean Protected Areas
What is the solution?
High-quality, multi-day ecotourism experiences that immerse travelers in nature and local culture, developed by Protected Areas through a collaborative process bringing together public conservation and private tourism sectors. Robust sustainability monitoring ensures these experiences provide benefits to conservation and local communities.
This solution improves our resource security in the planet category.
How does it #MoveTheDate?
Developing ecotourism products, monitoring their quality and sustainability (high-quality and low-impact), and investing in proximity and domestic markets offers opportunities to lower the impact of tourism while contributing to building resilience and aiding the post-COVID recovery of tourism destinations.
How is it scalable?
A membership-based association – the MEET Network – offers support to interested Protected Areas across the Mediterranean region to develop, manage, and commercialize ecotourism experiences which undergo rigorous sustainability monitoring through the MEET Ecotourism Standard.
What is the solution?
High-quality, multi-day ecotourism experiences that immerse travelers in nature and local culture, developed by Protected Areas through a collaborative process bringing together public conservation and private tourism sectors. Robust sustainability monitoring ensures these experiences provide benefits to conservation and local communities.
This solution improves our resource security in the planet category.
How does it #MoveTheDate?
Developing ecotourism products, monitoring their quality and sustainability (high-quality and low-impact), and investing in proximity and domestic markets offers opportunities to lower the impact of tourism while contributing to building resilience and aiding the post-COVID recovery of tourism destinations.
How is it scalable?
A membership-based association – the MEET Network – offers support to interested Protected Areas across the Mediterranean region to develop, manage, and commercialize ecotourism experiences which undergo rigorous sustainability monitoring through the MEET Ecotourism Standard.
Tourism trends after the COVID-19 pandemic show a flourishing preference for recreational activities in nature and local cultural expressions, such as ecotourism. To ensure that the generated tourism inflow brings positive impacts to both the environment and local communities, a set of criteria and indicators addressing quality, economic, social, cultural, governance, and conservation dimensions (including resource consumption) have been created.
A dedicated manual, a Footprint calculator, and a free e-learning module are offered, alongside technical expertise (e.g., marketing and promotion), to ensure replication of the MEET Network approach to interested Protected Areas across the region. These ecotourism standards support destinations’ post pandemic economic recovery.
The 2021 Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism calls to cut global tourism emissions and reduce the Ecological Footprint of tourism. According to Global Footprint Network’s calculations in the DestiMED Plus project co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund, the Footprint on the planet’s ecosystem of just travelling to a destination can be larger than all the activities while vacationing at the destination. For instance, a tourist traveling by flight from Europe to a Mediterranean destination has an average travel Footprint 73% lower than the average travel Footprint of a tourist traveling from outside the EU to the same destination, thus calling for investments in proximity tourism.
At the same time, promoting trains, cars, or boats as the main transportation within Europe to reach the destination instead of airplanes helps reduce the average Ecological Footprint of a tourist travelling to a Mediterranean Protected Area by about 41%. Stay tuned for more details on the impact of ecotourism packages built on DestiMED PLUS standards, compared to the average of tourist’s visits by destination.
There’s no benefit in waiting!
Acting now puts you at a strategic advantage in a world increasingly defined by ecological overshoot. Countless solutions exist that #MoveTheDate. They’re creative, economically viable, and ready to deploy at scale. With them, we can make ourselves more resilient and #MoveTheDate of Earth Overshoot Day. If we move the date 6 days each year, humanity can be out of overshoot before 2050.