New Action to Promote Governance for Sustainable Urban Tourism [17.07.2003]

On June 23-24, 2003, the Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis of the Karslruhe Research Center, the City of Heidelberg, and a number of partners organized an 1.5-day International Conference to discuss innovative ideas of bridging science and practice in Governance for Sustainable Urban Tourism and advance the role of Multi-stakeholder Partnerships as effective means of delivering urban tourism policy in the context of integrated and sustainable community development and broad-based local governance. The Conference took place in Heidelberg, Germany with the participation of 53 tourism and urban experts from Austria, Germany, Belgium, Bulgaria, Russia, United Kingdom, Spain, Greece, and Serbia.

At the event, the conference participants overwhelmingly emphasized the importance of tourism for urban sustainability and governance and the building of dynamic, competitive, quality and participatory-based urban economies in Europe. Jointly, they reinforced a number of key concepts and approaches in the areas of focus. At the end, a decision was made to adopt a joint Communiqué "Enforcing Governance for Sustainable Urban Tourism: SUT-Governance Project Conference Statement to the European R&D, Policy and Practice Community". The Communiqué is a contribution to the European Commission's strategic commitment to European Governance, Sustainable and Competitive Tourism and Integrated Urban Development. With it, the participants aim to further assist the process of developing European policies that have positive impact on European cities and the urban communities. To assist the efforts, all agreed to endorse the development of "Urban Tourism Governance Platform and Forum" in which the city authorities are invited to play a major part. The document sets out a number of essential principles that can guide the relations among the tourism stakeholders in the urban environments towards sustainability and participatory decision-making and defines the scope of their dialogue. It can be of particular interest to local authorities, urban and regional planners, government and tourism organization officials, industry decision makers, academics and researchers, and civil society and consumer groups.

Links:

• You can view here the whole document on the Conference Results and Participants Statement here
• More on the SUT-Governance Project and the final Conference