Ecotourism in Mountain Areas -

Transcription

1 Ecotourism in Mountain Areas - a Challenge to Sustainable Development European Preparatory Conference for the International Year of Ecotourism and the International Year of Mountains St. Johann/Pongau and Werfenweng, Salzburg, Austria 12 to 15 September 2001 Conclusions

2 Conclusions The European preparatory conference for the International Year of Ecotourism and for the International Year of Mountains 2002 was organized by the Government of Austria in cooperation with the World Tourism Organization (WTO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), between 12 th and 15 th September, 2001 in St. Johann (Salzburg). It examined ways to fully develop the ecotourism potential of Europe, and specifically of its mountain regions. It contributed the following statements, principles and recommendations to the World Ecotourism Summit in May 2002: 1. Ecotourism is a concept incorporating the goal that tourism should contribute to the conservation of natural landscapes. It was developed mostly in overseas destinations, in the form of niche market products, and was taken up by tour operators in Europe with increasing success. Long-haul travel to natural areas showed the steepest growth rates. There was a common understanding at the European preparatory conference that ecotourism as any other form of tourism has to be developed in an ecological, social and economically sustainable way. In the planning and implementation processes special attention has to be given to an effective and equal participation of all stakeholders, especially of local communities and people. Under these circumstances ecotourism can be a tool for promoting economic development of poorer countries which dispose of a great richness of natural capital and biodiversity. 2. Increasingly European visitors to these destinations expect that the tour operators and the providers of services in the different countries will offer socially responsible and sustainable ecotourism products. This needs transfer and exchange of knowledge. Europe can contribute to this, since the conceptual components of sustainable ecotourism is closely related to many forms of nature-focused, rural or soft tourism long practised in Europe. 3. The International Year of Ecotourism 2002 is helping to heighten the awareness that Europe can also count on fabulous natural landscapes such as the well known European mountain ranges of the Alps, the Pyrenees or the Carpathians, containing world famous natural monuments, and environments well preserved in spite of strong development pressure. 1

3 4. The special attraction of European ecotourism is the unique combination of nature and culture, managed through sustainably producing agriculture. This economy has produced an amazing diversity of relatively undisturbed natural environments, such as e.g. national parks, nature parks and protected areas. This natural and cultural diversity within a destination can be seen as the most important attraction of many European tourism destinations. Similar findings have also been stated by the recent work of the Council of Europe. 5. In the framework of the preparations for the Summit, the World Tourism Organization (WTO) has prepared several studies in touristically important European countries to determine the market potential of ecotourism. First results show that there is an attractive ecotourism market, mainly among working population with high discretionary income. The studies will also attempt to determine what economic contribution can be expected from ecotourism for the sake of protecting endangered areas. 6. The high level of development, the decentralized governmental structures, and the existence of well preserved local village communities with networks of small and medium enterprises, are essential requisites for endogenous tourism growth. Available human capital and know-how should, however, be better used especially within the concept of ecotourism. In order to accomplish this, entrepreneurial pioneering and the willingness of all stakeholders to co-operate is needed to translate innovative models into market-ready products and create sustainable business. If nature-focused tourism is built exclusively on public subsidies, it will remain economically insignificant. 7. The promotion of ecotourism should be integrated into sustainable development tools such as land-use, economic and social planning at regional and local levels. The growing expectations towards quality of life and consumption related to leisure, the liberalisation of agrobusiness and the competition of improving urban destinations are serious challenges for the development of sustainable rural ecotourism. As European tourism only grows at low rates compared to the tourism development world wide, due to local hard currencies, high cost and price levels and also several domestic weaknesses, strong competition seems to exist among the individual tourism forms in a given region. 2

4 8. A variety of promising European approaches for sustainable development of ecoturism were presented and discussed at the conference. The WTO s proposed guidelines for ecotourism and the recommendations resulting from successful and tested initiatives supported by UNEP in the fields of tour operation and hotel management are valid for Europe as well and can be used as reference. As for other areas, specific European input was also provided on networks for nature-based sustainable tourism developments and businesses supported by the framework of the Alpine Convention. National efforts to develop, implement and monitor ecotourism quality standards in Europe and its mountain regions - such as e.g. eco-labels - should also be mentioned. 9. A major European input consists in stressing that ecotourism needs sustainable forms of mobility. Leisure and tourism related traffic has increased dramatically over the last years. Sustainable tourism is only feasible with an environmentally sound transport system which satisfies its mobility needs without jeopardizing health, safety and the environment. Creating attractive mobility services in combination with tourism packages are considered to have been key success factors for projects like the Austrian Sanfte Mobilität - Autofreier Tourismus, the EU-funded Alps Mobility Project and other projects in this field. 10. Discussions have also shown that in case of market failures a role for public measures exists. An example is investment in public goods or assets such as the protection of endangered landscapes, by developing visitor facilities in protected areas as ecotourism attractions. Another important governmental role is the management of added environmental stress due to increased transportation needs, putting mountain ecosystems at risk, especially in valley regions where heavy traffic may make nature-based tourism unfeasible. Ecotourism is complementary to existing intensively used tourism destination. Additional investments in environmental infrastructure are necessary in those critical areas in order to reduce pressure on free landscape. 11. In the political sphere, successful implementation of sustainable ecotourism solutions depends on economic and environmental superstructures at national and intergovernmental level as pre-requisites. The implementation of the individual measures is best guaranteed by the local authorities in a bottom-up approach including democratic participation of the affected population. 3

5 The tourism industry should be aware of its responsibility for implementing principles of sustainable development in its business activities. At the end, though, in politically decentralized market economies, only a critical mass of environmentally and socially conscious citizens and consumers can define the sustainability of future ecotourism developments in our mountain areas. They should be the test markets and the partners in the process of tourism production. It is therefore necessary to make the population aware of the importance of the conservation of nature and landscape. Only then service providers will be able to incorporate the fascinating resources of European nature into ecologically sound intelligent tourism products, and to develop marketable ecotourism products. Finally, implementing sustainable tourism is primarily based on networking among the different stakeholders and players such as local population, local, regional and national authorities, intergovernmental organisations, NGOs, tourism and transportation industry and its customers, visitors and tourists of a given region. The organisers of the European Conference Ecotourism in Mountain Regions a Challenge for Sustainable Development, September 2001, Austria 4