Wemed natour, blue economy info day kicks off

PRESS RELEASE

WEMED NATOUR, BLUE ECONOMY INFO DAY KICKS OFF

FROM OCTOBER NEW OPPORTUNITIES AND ONLINE COURSES FOR TOURISM BUSINESSES

European countries with waterfront and accessible and attractive coastlines network for the development of coastal and maritime tourism. The blue economy is one of the most significant to track, not least because of the environmental and social impacts on natural resources and local communities. More than 600 million people (about 10% of the world's population) live in coastal areas less than 10 metres above sea level and almost 2.4 billion people (about 40% of the world's population) live within 100 km (60 miles) of the coast, and are therefore dependent and vulnerable to the quality, stability and accessibility of the oceans and seas.

The tourism industry is heavily dependent on the quality of natural ecosystems to attract visitors, but at the same time, it has an impact by making the sector vulnerable in terms of sustainability.

Improving and developing skills in the sector is now more vital than ever, considering the dangers that the climate crisis is generating even today.

The EU WeMED_NaTOUR project to promote the development and dissemination of best practices for sustainable marine and coastal tourism plays a crucial role in this context.

The EU's WeMED_NaTOUR project, together with the ECO-CRUISING FU_TOUR project, has been organising online information days to present capacity-building programmes since 5 July: online courses providing knowledge on the blue economy, sustainable development in the tourism sector, and essential knowledge and skills for Western Mediterranean tourism SMEs and European tourism SMEs to make their activities greener and provide a more competitive offer that meets market demand for green, sustainable and meaningful experiences.

The two projects are among the ‘flagship initiatives’ co-funded by the European Union's EMFAF programme and are implemented and developed by organisations with technical expertise in capacity building, strategic tourism planning and tourism package design from the Western Mediterranean basin. The objectives of both projects, although targeted at two distinct market sectors, are to support tourism stakeholders to tap into the growing ecotourism market in coastal, maritime and marine destinations; and to promote innovation and digitisation in the tourism sector; and last but not least, to improve the business environment for tourism SMEs. In short, the project is promoting sustainable development in the tourism sector by harnessing the blue economy while being environmentally responsible.

The programme of online training courses aimed at Western Mediterranean tourism SMEs, stakeholders and school teachers was presented with the participation of the programme's coordinator, X23 Srl from Italy, Jo Hendrickx, co-founder of Travel Without Plastic.

The capacity-building programme provides a 360° perspective on sustainable tourism with six modules. The courses can be followed flexibly from different locations at different times and are fully online via the Moodle platform. They are 10-15 minutes each in English with the possibility of translations into Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Arabic. A certificate of participation is provided at the end.

The capacity-building programme is scheduled to be launched in early October. For information and registration, please visit the official project website: euwemed-natour.eu/CapacityBuildingSignup

Contact details:

ENIT - Head of Communication

Francesca Cicatelli: francesca.cicatelli@enit.it

Elena di Raco: elena.diraco@enit.it

Sara Landrini: sara.landrini@enit.it

X23 Srl - Coordinator

Amal Muntaser: amal.muntaser@x-23.org

Eleonora Ambrosi: eleonora.ambrosi@x-23.org