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The European Charter for Sustainable Tourism “Leadership model and management skills for the implementation of the European Charter for Sustainable Tourism in Protected Areas” European Summer School 11 th July 2013 Napoli

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The European Charter for Sustainable Tourism

“Leadership model and management skills

for the implementation of the

European Charter for Sustainable Tourism

in Protected Areas”

European Summer School

11th July 2013 Napoli

Paulo Castro, EUROPARC Council member

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The Charter is not …

× …a financial mechanism;

× …a brand from the European Union;

× …a certification scheme.

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The Charter is …

…a voluntary agreement;

…a practical tool to implement principles of sustainable

tourism;

…a recognition/award by EUROPARC of the work done in

the territory by its stakeholders;

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The Charter is…

Parco C

Parco C

Park B

Park B

Parque A

Parque A

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A brief story about the ECST

1991 Working Group on Sustainable Tourism EUROPARC

1993

1995

“Loving them to death – Sustainable Tourism in Europe's Nature and National Parks”

Development of the Charter methodology (LIFE project with the French Federation of RNP)

2001 First 7 PA’s with ECST

2008/9 ECST Part II and the first Charter Partners

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Requirements of the ESCT

Sustainable Tourism Forum

Project Team

Applicant organization

• Park administration that coordinates all process;

• Inter-institutional and multidisciplinary team that integrates the key entities of the area;

• Technical support to all application process;

• Involving all the interested local stakeholders;

• Validates the territory options at the different stages of the ECST.

Charter area• Area with legal status of nature conservation (PA, N2000, Geopark, etc. or their combinations);

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Charter area

Charter Area

PACommunities/municipalities

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Sustainable Tourism Forum

SUSTAINABLE TOURISM FORUM

Culture

Information +Education

Local economy Transport

Sport + Leisure

Food +Accommodation

Local electedNature +

Landscape

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Create the Forum (permanent and plurinstitutional)

Create the project team

Guarantee contact with local

stakeholders in every step of the Charter

Define the Charter area

Develop a diagnostic of the

Charter area

Define a strategy for the sustainable

tourism development

Elaborate an Action Plan

Sign the Charter as an engagement

between all stakeholders

Charter Methodology

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ECST application dossier

1.Application;

2.Diagnostic of the territory;

3.Sustainable Tourism Strategy and Goals for the Charter

Area;

4.Action Plan for Sustainable Tourism Development (5 years);

5. Other documents.

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Charter Structure

PART I

PART II

PART III

Sustainable Tourism for PA’s

Sustainable Tourism for tourism businesses

Sustainable Tourism for tour operators travel agencies (2013/14)

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107 ECST in 13 countries (2012)

38 Spain24 France13 Italy13 UK5 Portugal4 Germany2 Finland1 Denmark1 Latvia1 Lithuania1 Netherlands1 Norway1 Slovakia

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ECST – Part II

• Official text approved in 2008;

• Encourages the engagement of tourism businesses and

recognizes them as Charter Partners;

• Global commitments and methodology defined by

EUROPARC and its Sections and locally by each PA;

• Development of an Action Plan of 3 years;

• “Partnership agreement” and “Partner Certificate”.

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United Kingdom: 35

France: 57

Spain: 174

How many Charter partners in 2011?

266 Charter Partners

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Main achievements of Charter

• Successful implementation of the 10 principles of the Charter for over twelve years

• Involvement of over 6.000 private and public entities, businesses and organizations in 107 Sustainable Tourism Forums

• Recognition of the Charter Partner Status to more than 400 tourism business actively involved in Charter protected areas in Sp, Fr and UK

• Charter Network and joint international project activities

• External verifiers and an independent Charter Evaluation Committee

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Lessons to be learned #1

• Be flexible and adaptative when it comes to Tourism and Protected Areas all over Europe. Too much complex and diverse

• Have a simple general text with major rules and then let local level be more specific

• This is not about money, it’s about working together and build up a common concept of STD. Money will come after in an easier way

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Lessons to be learned #2

• You need stakeholders participation, local politics involvement and technical professionalism otherwise you just get enthusiastic collective …. frustration!

• You need more technical support at local level animating and coordinating than in the upper level of the network. It’s a subsidiarity principle

• You might start with a Nature Conservation issue but you have to end up with a Tourism and Local development solution

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Lessons to be learned #3

• Networks sometimes work based in reasons we don’t understand nor control. “Bad and good” may happen at the same time. Take an advantage of that instead of being a “control freak”

• Destinations working together take longer to become a STD than just award tourism businesses individually, but you go much further

• This is a journey and an on going process that never stops!

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Aims for near future #1

• By 2013 we will have the Charter Part III in order to recognize Travel Agencies in the Charter process

• By 2014 we will update and upgrade our official texts and templates for new Charter applications in 2015 taking into consideration the outputs of the GSTC, ETIS and ETLS

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Aims for near future #2

• To establish a common platform of mutual recognition with other awarding schemes for STD based in Protected Areas in order we can apply together for funding in promotion and marketing with joint international projects

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Links of interest

• EUROPARC Federation (www.europarc.org)

• The European Charter for Sustainable Tourism in Protected Areas (www.european-charter.org)

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European Charter for Sustainable Tourism

Thank you for your attention…

E [email protected]

S www.europarc.org

T (+351) 926227623

Paulo CastroEUROPARC Federation

Some of the photos used are propriety of the EUROPARC Federation.