The approach of the ECOSERT
is to:
•Provide a mechanism to
plan tourism at a wider regional level rather
than the current piecemeal and spatially fragmented
approach to tourism development
•Integrate tourism planning
with sustainable development policies embracing
environmental protection, conservation, culture,
transport, social and economic development
and cohesion
•Provide a means to improve
the natural and social environment of currently
neglected areas through environmentally friendly
forms of tourism
•Establish planning principles
to diversify the tourism base in regions,
avoid over-concentration of tourism in certain
localities, reduce social and economic imbalance,
and minimise conflicts between tourist development
and the environment.
This is achieved through the preparation
of the methodology for Regional Environmental
Sustainable Tourism Plan (RESTP) and the preparation
of such a RESTP in each partner region. The
RESTP will aim to provide a spatial land use/environmental/transport
framework for the future planning of tourism
development within each region and identify
appropriate action areas, taking into account
the various needs, issues and background of
different European situations as evidenced in
the partner regions.
The RESTP methodology to emerge
from the inter-regional co-operation will be
integrated with other regional planning policies
(including those covering land use, conservation,
cultural heritage, socio-economic development,
transport and environmental protection) and
be flexible enough as a working tool to be applied
to other European regions. In this respect the
objective will be to disseminate in a wider
European perspective methods to plan:
•Spatial distribution
of tourism activities at regional level
•Conservation measures and policies
for ecological and cultural assets
•Eco/cultural tourism promotion policies
•Environmentally sustainable transport
•Identify priority local actions
•Setting up of intra and inter-regional
co-operation procedures for sustainable development
of tourism.
To carry out and test the robustness
of the RESTP, the ECOSERT project approach is
to:
•Create inter-regional
and intra-regional networks to help devise
and implement such plans across administrative
boundaries, involving local actors and end
beneficiaries throughout the planning process
•Carry out demonstration
projects of local "on the ground"
actions as action areas, part of the RESTP
strategy
•Monitor and evaluate
the results of actions carried out in order
to prepare pan-European guidelines for sustainable
development of tourism and environmental upgrading
through tourism.
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