International Conference on Sustainable Tourism, Palermo, 22 November 2017

The international conference on sustainable tourism »Global vision, local actions« was organised as back to back event with the meeting of Thematic Steering Group 4 (Sustainable tourism) on 22 November 2017 in Palermo. The conference was the occassion to exchange the views and needs between the »top down« macroregional policy level and »bottom up« implementers who carry out tourism-related projects at the local/transnational level and explore possibilities for future cooperation.

The overlapping challenges across the national tourism strategies of the eight EUSAIR participating countries was presented, which resulted in a proposal of a basket of joint actions related to the diversified tourism offer (products and services) and sustainable and responsible tourism management (innovation and quality). The actions are adressing the following topics:

-skills and vocation training (Master programms),

-monitoring (establishment of observatory)

-exploration of thematic routes ( in cooperation with other international/ regional organisations)

-innovation and digital agenda (smart specialization networks)

-cooperation with creative industries (film and art networks, clusters)

-access to financing.

One of the main challenge exposed at the conference was the management of sustainable tourism destinations in relation to the governance and local identity.