Sustainable cultural tourism report

Title: Sustainable cultural tourism report

Author: Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture (European Commission)

Year: 2019

Type of Resource: Report

Copyright: © European Union, 2019

Short Description:
This report targets policy-makers at EU and national levels, local heritage communities, heritage organisations and institutions, heritage sites, the tourism industry and tourists themselves. The working group identified 55 recommendations. With an emphasis on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and careful strategic planning, the fundamental messages from these recommendations focus on the need to: – urgently establish a European Over-Tourism Task Force comprising the main stakeholders who monitor cultural heritage destinations at risk or in a state of over-capacity and report annually on trends; – break down silos that exist between stakeholders by mainstreaming, collaborating and creating synergies at the various levels. In particular, the working group identified collaboration within the Directorate Generals of the EU, the ministries of the Member States (especially economics, tourism, cultural, and regional affairs), and the use of bottom-up approaches and tools, where applicable, in policy design, strategic planning and management that involve the relevant partners; – promote community ownership through training, discouraging seasonality by offering activities and pricing structures that encourage longer stays in the low season, and promoting lesser known sites and cultural heritage practices to take pressure off the known ‘hot-spots’. Overall, supporting local communities by consultation, engagement, incentivisation and encouraging a participatory approach to development was seen to be paramount; – develop digital tools and technology to facilitate remote access; the continuous assessment of visitor impact; carrying capacity guidelines; new interpretation techniques including artificial intelligence (AI); marketing and business intelligence.

External Link: https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/164ea9c5-2255-11ea-af81-01aa75ed71a1