1. Projects, Events and Training
Stakeholders’ Participation for enhancing Sustainable Tourism Performances: ETIS
Dr. Nadia Theuma
Executive Director
Projects, Events and Training
Paragon Europe

2. Overview
Some key points about sustainable tourism and sustainable tourism indicators
ETIS Tool
ETIS grid and the seven steps
ETIS pilot testing phase: learning from experience
Insights for the ETIS implementation

3. Tourism Development

4. Destinations

5. Challenges facing Mediterranean Tourism Destinations
GLOBALISATION
CLIMATE CHANGE
COMPETITION
LABOUR MARKET
POLITICAL SITUATION

6. Sustainable Tourism: Defined
“ Sustainable tourism development meets the needs of present tourists and host regions while protecting and enhancing opportunities for the future. It is envisaged as leading to management of all resources in such a way that economic, social and aesthetic needs can be fulfilled while maintaining cultural integrity, essential ecological processes, biological diversity and life support systems.”
WTO (1999)

7. Sustainable Tourism

8. 7 Good Reasons for Promoting Sustainability
A better quality of life
Create diversity through new businesses
Develop infrastructure
Protect cultural heritage
Promote creativity and innovation
Promote female jobs, create new economic activity
For our children: Our Future

9. Indicators for Sustainability – Why?
Decision makers need to know how:
Their actions can affect the assets and values of the destination
External factors can affect their interests
Tourism in particular, interacts with the other uses and users of the destination and its assets
The objective is to reduce future risks to the ecological, socio-cultural and economic functions of regions (destinations) and to enhance overall sustainability

10. Good Indicators Relevant: important to real decisions
Feasible: Practical to obtain, current, accessible when needed
Credible: objective and based on good science
Clear: understandable and meaningful to users
Comparable: can show changes over time and between destinations
(UNWTO, 1997; 2004)

11. Benefits of Tourism Indicators
Measuring tourism performances and monitoring own results will make it possible to:
Get better data for informed policy decision making
Establish an intelligent approach to tourism planning
Identify areas/impacts that need improvement
Prioritize action projects
Manage risks effectively
Create benchmarks of performance

12. The ETIS Tool
ETIS is a Europe-wide system suitable for all tourist destinations, encouraging them to adopt a more intelligent approach to tourism planning. It is:
a management tool, supporting destinations who want to take a sustainable approach to destination management
a monitoring system, easy to use for collecting data and detailed information and to let destinations monitor their performance from one year to another
an information tool (not a certification scheme), useful for policy makers,  tourism enterprises and other stakeholders.

13. The Grid Flexible and adaptable system
Mix of Core and Optional Indicators
Four (4) categories:
Destination Management Indicators
Economic value Indicators
Social and cultural Impacts
Environmental Impacts

14. How to implement ETIS: The Seven Steps Step 1. Raise Awareness
Step 2. Create a Destination Profile
Step 3. Form a Stakeholder Working Group (SWG)
Return to SWG to agree priorities and
develop a plan of action
Step 4. Establish Roles and Responsibilities
Step 5. Collect and Record Data
Step 6. Analyse results
Step 7. Enable ongoing Development and Continuous improvement

15. Lessons from ETIS (1) Step 1: Create Awareness:
Targeted audience
Involve local authorities from the early stage of the process
Appropriate use of local media
Step 2: Create a Destination Profile
Defining the destination from some countries can be difficult
City vs. tourism zones; cultural centres vs. leisure areas
Step 3: Form a SWG
Establishing a destination SWG representing the complexity of the Tourism Sector
Essential to have a strong coordinator leading the SWG

16. Lessons from ETIS (2) Step 4: Roles and Responsibility
The SWG may not have access to all the data in the grids
Data collection should be consistent over time – log book for data collection
Step 5: Collecting Data
From data/indicators to their use for strategies and decision making (ETIS as a process towards a more committed approach)
some data may not be available,
Need to adapt survey template to destination needs
Voluntary – based a limitations in resources to conduct surveys for data collection

17. Lessons from ETIS (3) Step 6: Analysis of results Step 7: Improvements
Role of Action Plans for timely analysis of data
Step 7: Improvements
Feedback loop allows for improvement of data
Possibility to share knowledge and experience with other destinations through portal and case studies

18. The Process Establish the SWG for Destination
Involve stakeholders by means of info meetings and focus groups with the individual stakeholder groups
Analyse routine data, modify data collection and introduce new data sets
RESULT: sustainability is an internal process that can be planned and directed

19. Typical Stakeholder Engagement

20. Insights from ETIS implementation
Clarifying the process, and roles: each stakeholder member of SWG is called to take directly responsibility on the process
Sharing information
Generating and sharing benefits: bridging academia, professionals and practitioners
Working together: aim for nowadays and the near future
Sustainability becomes the business of everyone: in this way all stakeholders are able to contribute towards the formulation of sustainable tourism policy

21. Questions for the Workshop
Why does our destination require indicator analysis?
Which of the 4 categories of destination management, economic values, social and cultural and environmental impact is most pressing for the destination?
Whom will you approach to lead the study and why?
Who could be your stakeholder group? Why?
What challenges do you envisage in implementing ETIS in your destination? How will you overcome these, who will you use to help you?
What benefits do you envisage?

22. For further information kindly contact:
Thank you
For further information kindly contact: