ZAGREB, March 7, 2018 – An international conference on ecotourism in Mediterranean protected areas opened in Split on Tuesday, bringing together 60 representatives of protected areas and travel agencies who are together creating new ecotourism products.
The newly-established Mediterranean Experience of Ecotourism (MEET) network was presented. It will serve as a platform to share ideas and long term marketing strategies.
Participants in the conference agreed that ecotourism could be a genuine solution to the current tourism challenges in the Mediterranean.
The event was organised by the World Wildlife Fund and its partners in the DestiMED project, which is financed from the European Union’s Interreg Med programme. The project collects data for an innovative approach to gauging and reducing tourism’s impact on natural resources which are maintained by protected area communities.
The project is worth 2.5 million euro and includes Croatia, Greece, Italy, France and Spain, as well as 11 Mediterranean maritime protected areas, said Mosor Prvan of WWF Adria. In Croatia, the project is implemented by WWF Adria in the Lastovo Archipelago Nature Park and the Kornati National Park.
We are happy that Mediterranean protected areas have the tools and the know-how necessary so that tourism can have a positive impact on them, and they can also work with other parks to promote a new vision of Mediterranean tourism, said MEET president Antonio Troya.
Responding to questions from the press, project manager Iacopo Sinibaldi said the idea was to develop ecotourism as an alternative to mass tourism. Ecotourism takes into account local tradition and heritage as well as biodiversity, he added.
