Consume Less in Mediterranean Touristic Communities

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Most of the coastal cities in the MED area are interested by high touristic flows. This creates relevant economic and employment opportunities, but generates at the same time negative externalities that threaten the preservation of those ecosystem services that ensure tourism attractiveness. The development of a sustainable tourism in coastal cities is thus a strategic issue in the MED area. The CONSUME-LESS project faces this issue by demonstrating the effectiveness of a sustainable tourism model based on the qualification of the coastal cities as “consume-less” locations and on the enhancement of this peculiarity through an innovative communication and territorial marketing campaign, both implemented by directly involving all interested actors (local authorities, tourism operators and service providers, tourists). This will bring multiple benefits, that will be carefully monitored and accounted for through the use of a suitable set of indicators, based on the European Tourism Indicators System. Expected benefits are the reduction in water and energy consumption and waste generation, the enhancement of local products and natural resources, the increase in tourism flows and in tourists awareness on the importance of adopting environmentally sound lifestyles. The transnational approach is fundamental in the project, as it allows to test the effectiveness of the consume-less model in different contexts, thus enabling the assessment of its wide replicability in the MED area.

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