NECSTouR President, Mr Patrick Torrent, joined the high-level political debate of the Seas, Rivers and Islands (SEARICA) Intergroup of the European Parliament.

In his intervention, he shared the perspective of NECSTouR members and of the Sustainable Tourism Community towards Sustainable Tourism recovery from the Covid-19 crisis in the Maritime and Coastal Regions of Europe.

NECSTouR Vision

The pandemic highlighted the relevance of NECSTouR programme “driving behavioural change for sustainable tourism destinations” to support the European regions in translating the implementation of both the EU Green Deal and Digital Age into their tourism ecosystems as the way to recover sustainably.

As President Torrent highlighted: “We must drive regions to jointly build the European agenda for tourism 2050, and we need to keep supporting our tourism entrepreneurs.”

Sustainable Tourism Communities in the Mediterranean

As partner of the MED Sustainable Tourism Community, NECSTouR also promotes the capitalisation of all the valid initiatives and best practices developed within the Community.

During his intervention, Mr Torrent invited the Members of the European Parliament and all the other policy-makers to mainstream the Policy recommendations and tools developed within the Community: “They represent a great instrument to contribute to a green and digital post-Covid tourism recovery, the EU Green Deal challenges and making tourism more visible in the new programming period 2021-2027.”

The conference was co-organised by the Conference of Peripheral and Maritime Regions (CPMR) and the NECSTouR intervention reinforced a long-standing cooperation with that organisation.