Develop and promote practices and solutions to ensure efficient use of natural resources and reduce environmental impacts of tourism, respecting spatial, ecological, and socio-cultural carrying capacities of the destination.
Promote the sharing of relevant knowledge on sustainable consumption and production applied to tourism (e.g. best environmental practice (BEP) and best available techniques (BAT)) to optimise the eco-efficiency of tourism activities and the use of environmental management systems (e.g. ISO 14001);
Develop a destination management model to promote sustainable tourism and create a network of sustainable destinations;
Promote local sustainable tourism training to enhance local capacities and upgrade the existing ones;
Promote the diversification of the tourism offer from mass tourism to alternative forms of tourism (e.g. ecotourism, cultural tourism, rural tourism, off-season tourism) to reduce the impacts of seasonality and to reduce environmental pressures on coastal areas.
Objective II
Promote regulatory, legislative and financial measures to mainstream sustainable consumption and production in the tourism consumption and production area, to reduce tourism seasonality creating green and decent jobs and to promote local community engagement and empowerment.
Revise current tourism legislation at the national level to facilitate the integration of sustainable consumption and production principles and measures in the tourism sector;
Create eco-taxes, eco-charges or fees as an effective instrument to internalize externalities (e.g. tax relief of tourism activities during the low season) creating a fund exclusively earmarked for the improvement of the environmental quality of the destination and for the creation of green jobs;
Promote the Tourism Carrying Capacity Assessment (TCCA) approach as a mandatory analysis for the preparation of national and local tourism planning and for the approval of new tourism investment;
Develop policies and actions to minimize the physical impact of tourist activity.
Objective III
Raise awareness, capacities and technical skills to support sustainable destinations and green tourism services, and promote the development of appropriate marketing and communication tools to ensure a competitive sustainable Mediterranean Tourism.
Promote tourism eco-labels with robust environmental criteria based on a standards cheme verified by an independent organization (e.g. EU Ecolabel, Green Key, Nordic Swan, etc.);
Develop and implement capacity building activities for tourism private operators to improve capacities and awareness on the importance of adopting sustainable consumption and production strategies;
Encourage marketing and communication activities focused on promoting the Mediterranean sustainable destinations and enhancing the visibility of Mediterranean sustainable tourism service providers in the international and national markets (e.g. flagship events; participation to international fairs, exhibitions and major public events; agreements with online tour operators and other intermediaries; web-marketing and thematic publishing).
