Sustainable Tourism

Between June 6 and July 31 2024 the Thematic Partnership on Sustainable Tourism initiated a Public Consultation to collect feedback on their Draft Action Plan.

The Partnership finalised their Draft Action Plan in April 2024 and the proposed set of Actions aims to transform the tourism landscape, making it more resilient, inclusive, and environmentally conscious. Developed through extensive collaboration among the members of the Thematic Partnership on Sustainable Tourism, within the Urban Agenda for EU, the Action Plan outlines six Actions designed to address the key challenges faced in the framework of urban tourism today. 

The public consultation invited interested stakeholders, including institutions and authorities, academic and research centers, companies, NGOs, experts, and citizens, to contribute with their knowledge and ideas to further develop and enhance the proposed actions. Since the closing of the consultation period the partnership has worked on integrating the feedback in the Final Action Plan which will be finalised in winter 2024.

Below you can see the Draft Action Plan and the material accompanying it:

• A summary of the draft Action Plan is available to facilitate the consultation process.
  Download the summary of the Draft Action Plan.
   
• The complete draft Action Plan is available for more details.
  Download the Draft Action Plan.
   
• We invite you to consult the embedded Miro-board available below, which nicely illustrates the six Actions proposed in the draft Action Plan.

The overarching goal of the Sustainable Tourism Partnership is to advocate for sustainable tourism practices by raising awareness and educating stakeholders, citizens, and policymakers about both its benefits and challenges. It aims to capitalize on the economic, social, and environmental opportunities presented by sustainable tourism to foster a balanced and resilient recovery, promote inclusivity, and drive innovation.

Moreover, it pays specific attention to supporting cities in implementing sustainable tourism practices and driving positive change at both local and EU levels. It identifies and tackles urban issues by fostering collaborative processes of co-creation and co-implementation among Member States, regions, cities, the European Institutions, and other stakeholders. The Action Plan focuses on streamlining access to EU funding, promoting combined financing (Better Funding), enhancing the knowledge base on urban issues, and facilitating the exchange of best practices (Better Knowledge).

The Sustainable Tourism Partnership is composed of 29 members, including 9 cities, 3 regions, and one national authority. It was approved in October 2022, started its work in December of the same year, and is expected to implement its work by the end of 2025. To develop its Action Plan, the Partnership used an Ex-Ante Assessment study as a foundation, structured its work under four Working Groups (WGs) focused on Environment, Development (2 WGs), and Unbalanced Growth, and organized regular management and content meetings. All UAEU Partnerships aim to contribute to Better Knowledge, Better Funding, and Better Regulation by applying multilevel and multi-stakeholder cooperation processes at the EU level.
 

The new Thematic Partnership is based on a working definition of sustainable tourism, following the recital 27 of the Regulation (EU) 2021/1058 on the European Regional Development Fund and on the Cohesion Fund:

“Sustainable tourism requires a balance between economic, social, cultural, and environmental sustainability. The approach to supporting sustainable tourism should be in accordance with the Commission Communication ‘Agenda for a sustainable and competitive European tourism’. In particular, it should take into account the welfare of tourists, respect the natural and cultural environment and ensure the socio-economic development and competitiveness of destinations and businesses through an integrated and holistic policy approach.”

The new Thematic Partnership focuses on the specific issues related to tourism in cities as a crucial component of a sustainable development of the urban economies.

The new Thematic Partnership also builds on the results of previous Thematic Partnerships on Digital transition, on Housing, on Urban Mobility, on Jobs and skills in the local economy and on Culture and Cultural heritage. The new Thematic Partnership may follow up the work of previous Partnerships, e.g., by expanding its scope and /or realising pilot implementation but will not overlap it.

The following tables provide a tentative and non-exhaustive list of potential issues that may be the object of the Partnership’s thematic focus.