To finish off our project in Croatia we organised a final conference on sustainable tourism at Hotel Split in Podstrana on November 30th 2017. High-level officials and key stakeholders met to discuss the impact tourism has on destinations.
The conference was hosted by the Travel Foundation and the TUI Care Foundation, with support from the Ministry of Tourism of Croatia, UNESCO, the Institute of Tourism and regional and local tourism bodies.
The main goal of the conference was to motivate participants to start thinking about the importance of sustainability and how to include this approach in their everyday activities.
Key stakeholders from Igrane and Živogošće shared their experiences of this project: lessons learned, challenges met, and successes in activities including:
- Creating decision-making destination “councils”
- Providing training for restaurant owners and other small businesses
- Encouraging tourists to discover what’s on offer outside their hotels
- Supporting young people to pursue a career in the hospitality sector
We also heard from the Ministry of Tourism, who presented their strategic vision for the next 3 years, with a focus on sustainable rural tourism development. They emphasised the importance of measuring the full impacts of tourism – social and environmental as well as economic – to allow for smarter destination management.
Feedback was more than positive, with attendees saying the were motivated and inspired to make changes and help us to shape a better future for tourism in Croatia.
