The overall objective of CO-EVOLVE is to move towards more sustainable models for the development of tourism activities in coastal areas, identifying the main threats to and factors facilitating their development, and implementing pilot demonstration actions to achieve this goal.
The project aims to:
- Analyse the main threats to and factors facilitating the development of sustainable coastal tourism in the Mediterranean.
- Design a conceptual model involving indicators to assess the level of sustainability of tourism in the Mediterranean.
- Produce action plans (in selected pilot areas) for the development of sustainable tourism.
- Develop a set of tools that contribute to the sustainability of tourism in Mediterranean coastal areas, testing them at local level (in the selected pilot areas) and then facilitating their transfer to Mediterranean level.
Achieving these goals at the local level of project development, entails the following specific objectives for Fundación Valenciaport:
- Make progress in identifying and measuring the socio-economic impact of cruise tourism in Valencia and raise awareness of it among the local community, establishing recommendations to help ensure that the economic impacts of cruise tourism are more appropriately distributed.
- Contribute to reducing the negative environmental effects attributed to cruise ship traffic by developing a tool that can be used to evaluate the environmental aspects associated with this traffic, and linking it to the implementation of good environmental practices.
In the specific case of the Valencia Port-City pilot area, a study was carried out on the cruise industry’s economic impact on the city of Valencia, valued in terms of employment and revenue. The study sought to determine whether and to what extent this traffic plays a role in the economic growth of the city.
In addition, a study was carried out to characterize the environmental aspects linked to cruise tourism activity. This aim of this study was to evaluate whether and to what extent these effects are significant, and if they are, to propose measures aimed at preventing, correcting or minimizing them.
The project also involved developing a proposal for indicators to monitor cruise tourism (ECO-TOOL), in order to be able to monitor both the socio-economic and environmental aspects, and thus evaluate the sustainability of the activity.
With all these results, the aim is to lay the foundations for drawing up, in a subsequent phase, an Action Plan that will contribute to the development of sustainable cruise tourism in the city of Valencia.
