NECSTouR's Vision on a Well Balanced Tourism Promotion Presented at the AITR's Debate on the "Overtourism"
31/05/2018

NECSTouR's Vision on a Well Balanced Tourism Promotion Presented at the AITR's Debate on the "Overtourism"

 

The Italian Association of Responsible Tourism (AITR) - an Associate Member of NECSTouR - organised in the framework of the ITACA Festival in Bologna a roundtable on the so-called "overtourism" with the title "Inhabitants VS Tourists: Responsible Tourism showing the Way".

NECSTouR Contribution. Mrs Teresa Caldarola - Tuscany Region - intervened on behalf of NECSTouR, presenting the NECSTouR Initiative "Better Places to Live, Better Places to Visit", aimed during this Year on Cultural Heritage at raising the social dialogue between the cultural and the tourism private and public stakeholders, leading experts, and citizens representatives from local to international level to develop together the draft of the Barcelona Declaration of Tourism and Cultural Heritage “Better places to live, Better places to visit” which has been presented on the 19 of April in Barcelona on the occasion of a namesake event.

Not Overtourism, but Unbalanced Tourism. "Too often Tourism Investments are oriented to the marketing and promotion - stated Mrs Caldarola - instead of proper investments on management" And she continued "It is like if you invite your friends for a dinner without having in mind how many chairs and glasses you have..."

Key concepts. NECSTouR Secretary General underlined the importance of a balance for the destinations, planning of tourism fluxes, investments, digitalisation and connectivity of services, micro and big data for the analysis to support the planning of public policies and the impact evaluation.
She finally introduced some ongoing activities in cooperation with the European institutions and the international organisations and some regional experiences also on the base of some ongoing European projects.

Other contributions provided some reflections on the overtourism developed by the ISTO network (Mr Maurizio Davolio, President of AITR), an ongoing study and project about the massive presence of tourists in religious sites (Prof. Fiorella Dallari, University of Bologna and member of the International Scientific Committee on Places of Religious and Rituals), the experience of Venice (Mrs Celile Rousset, President of the "Vivo Venezia" Association), managing experiences at the Cinque Terre (Mrs Caterina Natale, President of "Cooperativa Turismo 5 Terre").

AITR Board Meeting. In the afternoon, NECSTouR Secretary General also attended the AITR Board Meeting. It has been a great opportunity exchange about priorities and future plans.