Sustainable tourism on the Adriatic Coast, part of the Interreg project

Coastal tourism in Europe is worth over 51 billion euros and 1.6 million jobs. How do we guarantee sustainable development in this important sector? Thanks to a European project, Ca’ Foscari will face the challenge in three Adriatic regions (Veneto, Puglia and Istria) and three destinations: Split, Dubrovnik and Venice, all of which are affected by an excessive amount of pressure from tourists.

The BLUTOURSYSTEM- Knowledge platform, skills and creative synergies for blue tourism ecosystem development, is financed by the communal border cooperation Interreg Italy-Croatia.

The first objective is to increase the awareness of the phenomenon at all levels. It will have developed an observation of tourist dynamics: public administration, citizens and tourists can consult an interactive online map to review the flow of tourism and make more informed decisions. Additionally, the project team will open a comparison between all the players involved on the two Adriatic shores: hotels, restaurants, public transport bodies, tour guides, tour operators, to name a few.

The expected results include an increase in tourism investments in coastal areas in terms of eco-innovation and competitiveness, while promoting and encouraging a diversified and creative offer of cross-border tourism.

BLUTOURSYSTEM is coordinated by Professor Jan Van Der Borg from the Department of Economics at Ca’ Foscari. The other partners include the Veneto region, the Puglia region, the Istria Region, the Faculty of Economics of the University of Split and the Local Action Group ‘LAG5’ in Croatia. The project has a total budget of one million euros, with a European co-financing of 881 thousand euros.

Enrico Costa