Over 1600 delegates from 50 countries representatives of governments, Initiatives and projects’ promoter, researchers and policymakers participated at the Mediterranean Tourism Forum 2024 organised by the Mediterranean Tourism Foundation between 25 and 27 November 2024, at the hotel Hilton-Malta, to share research findings, opinions, and news. The Forum welcomes case studies on a variety of topics at the regional, national, and international levels in addition to conceptual and empirical research papers.
Talking about sustainable tourism in the mediterranean region, is talking also about the obstacles that tourism must overcome like the lack of strong collaboration between Euro-MED policymakers and public authorities, the lack of multidisciplinary and multi-sectoral discussions among stakeholders for sustainability, overtourism, seasonality, climate change, crises, low levels of digitization and absence of accurate monitoring tools. Greening the Islands, partner of Dialogue4Tourism Project, had the opportunity to present the Interreg Euro-Med program with the four missions. The mission Sustainable Tourism which aims to make tourism greener, smarter, and more resilient, requires a paradigm shift in governance toward collaboration across levels, sectors, and territories to effectively address these challenges, by funding 12 projects on different aspects of tourism especially the Institutional dialogue on Sustainable Tourism and Governance in the Euro-Med represented by the Dialogue4Tourism project that aim to develop solutions and promote cooperation in the Euro-MED and beyond, to increase the coordination level and institutional capacity to make the tourism greener, smarter and more resilient.
Afterwards, the structure and the governance tools of the Dialogue4Tourism were explored, with a focus on the Mediterranean Network Sustainable Tourism Observatories (MED NSTO), which intends to create multilevel cooperation for the best solutions by bringing together various players involved in data management for sustainable tourism.
This has been a valuable opportunity for Greening the Islands, to present the organization, her observatory and the global sustainability Index, where Mr. Gianni Chianetta emphasized the importance of monitoring and the use of tool and indicators to assess the perception, impact, efficiency, cost and effectiveness of what it has been done, by identifying what’s important for the tourism, gather the available data, and fix the objectives. This is an accurate way of continuously managing the flow of information, providing appropriate solutions and making tourism sustainable.
For this year, the forum has a specific theme “Amidst Rapid Transformational Shifts – ARTS” by emphasizing the importance of concentrating on what makes us Mediterranean, we must be inspired by artists and develop a heightened awareness of our surroundings; we cannot simply be effective administrators in managing our companies and nations. We can become creative leaders by doing this.
The Mediterranean Tourism Knowledge Exchange and Policy Forum unites researchers and policymakers to share insights and research, enhancing regional development and sustainability. It promotes regenerative tourism that revitalizes environments and communities, fostering mutually beneficial relationships between tourists and locals, ensuring all stakeholders co-create value and enhance the overall experience.
The two-day forum brings together researchers and policymakers to exchange news, views and research results to empower the Mediterranean tourism and economic development, policy and planning, through best practices. The Forum supports tourism and hospitality organisations and destinations to develop their competitiveness and become more sustainable, attractive and competitive.
The session has been closed by answering the different questions, almost all of which are concerned on how to monitor tourism, and how to engage stakeholders to ensure that tourism is profitable and sustainable
Professor Dimitrios Buhalis closed the session by putting forward the concept of “Regenerative tourism” that should actively regenerate, revitalize and positively impact both the environment and local communities, making destinations more attractive for both visitors and residents and creating mutually beneficial relationships between tourists, communities and the environment, tourism should ensure that all parties cocreate value and benefit from the experience.
