Transnational year-round strategy for Mediterranean island destinations
WINTER MED Transnational year-round strategy for Mediterranean island destinations aims to lead sustainable tourism development in a collaborative integrated manner to foster dialogue, ownership, growth, innovation and joint action working as one sustainable tourism destination. The tool aims to foster a transnational perspective and encourage cooperation between regions. Based on seven values –sustainability, inclusivity, safety, competitiveness, gender equality, digitalisation, and high quality– the strategy sets up strategic axes, including innovation, governance, connectivity, biodiversity and waste management. Thus, it provides a rich and solid baseline to enhance sustainable and responsible tourism within and beyond Mediterranean islands.
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The WINTER MED transnational strategy is addressed to all Mediterranean insular territories willing to move from a “3 S”(Sun, Sea, and Sand) tourism to a sustainable all-year round tourism model, but also other regions beyond the Mediterranean facing the challenge of high seasonality of tourism. The strategy is a joint and collaborative document built on best practices and lessons learned from the co-design and implementation of Regional Action Plans containing a set of concrete actions and measures to tackle seasonality in tourism in six partner regions: Tuscany, Cyprus, South Aegean, Dubrovnik-Neretva, Corse and Balearic Islands.
Replicability conditions
The main values of the Strategy should be embraced by the whole ecosystem of regional stakeholders, from local and regional public authorities, businesses (including SMEs), educational and academic actors as well as civil society. The actions leading towards sustainable and responsible tourism need coordinated action from all sectors and governance levels to avoid the fragmentation of policies. The co-design and implementation of regional strategies should be done through participatory processes and be accompanied by continuous social dialogue, capacity building and policy learning actions. In addition, transnational networking and policy exchange is needed to ensure overall coordination and synergies among Mediterranean island destinations.