Knowledge Networking Portal for Sustainable & Responsible Tourism
Reply to message
Hi Martin and all, The good thing is that most European countries have strict legislation regarding National parks, zoning and exploitation of these heritage sites. The bad thing is that apart from a good legal framework the practice says a different story in many cases. Tourism can be beneficial and create a win-win scenario but in my view needs careful planning, constant monitoring and clear guidelines of what an operator or visitor may or may not do in a protected area. Certification can play a supplementary role in this but you also need a good park authority to monitor everything and a local community supportive of what the natonal park stands for. From the work we are carrying out in developing the European Ecotourism Labelling Standard - EETLS we have been reviewing schemes on tourism quality and codes of conduct that are found in European national parks today. From my experience there are still a lot to be done on this front as again in most cases specifications are wide and codes of conduct voluntary. Its a good discussion topic and as you put it, we first need to decide what kind of tourism we want in protected areas
Posted by ecovassilis at 30 May 2011 17:25:16
