ACTION PLANNING NETWORKS – PHASE 1
TOURISM FRIENDLY CITIES
Local community and tourists together for urban sustainability
BASELINE STUDY
prepared by
Anamaria Vrabie
Presented to Tourism-friendly cities network and URBACT
February 2020
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS ...... 2
1. SECTION 1 – STATE OF THE ART ...... 3 1.1. Introduction ...... 3 1.2. The Theme ...... 4 1.3. The Policy Context ...... 9 1.4. City Examples ...... 10
2. SECTION 2 – PARTNER PROFILES ...... 13 2.1. Introduction ...... 13 2.2. Content ...... 14 2.2.1 City profile: Genoa (Italy) ...... 15 2.2.2 City profile: Braga (Portugal) ...... 20 2.2.3 City profile: Caceres (Spain) ...... 24 2.2.4 City profile: Druskininkai (Lithuania) ...... 27 2.2.5 City profile: Dubrovnik (Croatia) ...... 30 2.2.6 City profile: Dun Laoghaire (Ireland) ...... 34 2.2.7 City profile: Krakow (Poland) ...... 37 2.2.8 City profile: Rovaniemi (Finland) ...... 41 2.2.9 City profile: Utrecht (The Netherderlands) ...... 44 2.2.10 City profile: Venice (Italy) ...... 48 2.3. Conclusion and small scale actions...... 53
3. SECTION 3 – SYNTHESIS AND METHODOLOGY ...... 55 3.1. Introduction ...... 55 3.2. Analysis, Synthesis and Proposals for Phase 2 ...... 55 3.3. Network Methodology ...... 63 3.4. Network outputs, communication and dissemination ...... 66
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1. SECTION 1 – STATE OF THE ART
The State of the Art for Tourism-friendly Cities Action Planning Network frames the latest developments in the tourism industry from social, environmental and economical perspectives to help envision the key integrated areas that cities need to tackle for shifting towards sustainable tourism approaches. It highlights the global tipping point reached by this cross-cutting sector and, as a result, the significant challenges already experienced by cities.
Most importantly, it aims to provide a better understanding of the significant changes needed in public policy, both in terms of governance and leadership, with industry and tourists part of the co-design of solutions, alongside residents and local authorities.
The information presented here is a synthesis of policy papers, sector analysis, EU reports, statistics and Expert Group reports, private sector studies, as well as institutional documents and examples of good practices provided from Tourism-friendly Cities project partners.
1.1. Introduction
Tourism industry is one of the most important of our era. It drives wealth, employment and regional development, and it is expected to experience continuous growth. Tourism, travels and related sectors accounts for 10.3% of GDP in EU and 11.7 % of total employment1. Similarly, at global level, in 2018, the industry helped generate 10.4% of world GDP and a similar share of employment, and has shown enormous resilience over the last decade. The EU welcomed 500 million international tourist arrivals (overnight visitors) in 2016, accounting for 40% of the world’s total 2. A long-term study by the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) forecasts a growth in European tourism, to an estimated 744 million tourists (+1.8%), or 41.1% of the global market, over the period to 20303.
Despite this positive economic outlook, the current growth model of the industry is hardly compatible with the quality of life of local communities, especially in cities or mature destinations. In 2017, Venice, the city of 260,000 received more than 28 million foreign tourists. Barcelona, with its resident population of 1,625,137 received over 30 million tourists. The stark difference in numbers is not only relevant of how much space and amenities a city can offer. It also alludes to the difference between city residents and tourists or, using a different layer, resident taxpayers- consumers.
In fact, a recent UNWTO report4 on overtourism in cities recognized the need for the sector to “ensure sustainable policies and practices that minimize adverse effects of tourism on the use of natural resources, infrastructure, mobility and congestion, as well as its socio-cultural impact”. This call for action is amplified
1 European Parliament – Fact Sheet on the European Union, Tourism, 2019 2 World Economic Forum -The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report, 2019 3 United Nations World Tourism Organisation - European Union Tourism Trends, 2018 4 UNWTO- ‘Overtourism’? Understanding and Managing Urban Tourism Growth beyond Perceptions Volume 2: Case Studies, 2019
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by recent street protests1 in several European cities against the overtourism. As recently as April 2019, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Bordeaux, Brussels, Krakow, Munich, Paris, Valencia and Vienna signed a joined letter 2 addressed to the European Commission’s calling for legislative support for curving the “explosive growth” of global short-stay rental platforms.
Examples of strategies for managing visitor growth in cities: 1. Promote the dispersal of visitors within the city and 7. Create city experiences that benefit both beyond; residents and visitors; 2. Promote time-based dispersal of visitors; 8. Improve city infrastructure and facilities; 3. Stimulate new visitor itineraries and attractions; 9. Communicate with and engage local 4. Review and adapt regulation; stakeholders; 5. Enhance visitors’ segmentation; 10. Communicate with and engage visitors; 6. Ensure local communities benefit from tourism; 11. Set monitoring and response measures.
Source: UNWTO- ‘Overtourism’? Understanding and Managing Urban Tourism Growth beyond Perceptions Volume 2: Case Studies, 2019
It is no surprise that cities are the forefront of the paradigm shift needed from the tourism industry. The urban scale provides the daily interactions where the tourism production system shows its effects and consequences. Local governments are committed to guarantee a balanced impact of tourism in urban areas and on local economies, conjugating the need of economic growth of all the different sectors involved in tourism (mobility, hospitality, culture, tour operators, gastronomy, etc.) and the well-being of temporary and permanent residents. At the same time, local governments need to cope with a sector whose trends are constantly evolving at global level, with the growing role of a series of companies and platforms active at global level on sectors as hospitality and transport, which show the effects of their actions on places as neighbourhoods, streets and buildings where only local governments can find innovative and integrated solutions.
Changing from a growth-oriented tourism paradigm, towards one looking at the quality of growth and compatibility to the quality of life of residents is easier said than done. With much of the policy-making around tourism being done at national and European level and with a highly fragmentised portfolio (falling under economic, innovation, cultural, environment, transportation, security and many other authorities), cities have little ready-to-use tools for driving this change. This also presents itself as an opportunity, leaving room for innovative practices than can harvest collective answers and actions at local level.
1.2. The Theme
This section presents a brief explanation of macro trends causing profound changes in the tourism industry and urban policy. It takes into account the global flows, as well as recent policy foresights at EU level. It
1 The Guardian- First Venice and Barcelona: now anti-tourism marches spread across Europe, 2017 2 Amsterdam Municipality- Press release ‘Cities alarmed about European protection of holiday rental’, 2019
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highlights key themes that need to be taken into account in the future Integrated Actions Plans. These trends are captured in four areas: social, environmental, economic and urban governance.
1. Social Visitor behaviour and demand will significantly change, as a result of demographic shifts and the growth of a global middle class.
As previously mentioned, the tourism industry is expected to experience growth in the next two decades. The European market is forecasted to grow at 1.5% each year in 2020-2030. With an estimated of 744 million arrivals in 2030, the trend also shows the maturity of the European market and, consequently, its more modest growth rate compared to the Asian market, where the estimated growth rate is 4.9% per year1. Much of this increase will be generated by tourists with different travel preferences than the current pool of visitors.
By 2040 the core of domestic and international tourists will be Millennials (born in the early-1980s to mid- 1990s) and Generation Z (born in the late-1990s to early-2010s) generations, mostly middle-class. Both these demographics grew up with technology and internet, and their demand for tourist products and services is shaped by their interaction with these mediums 2. However, their purchasing power will be most likely different from preceding generations, as they won’t be able to accumulate wealth as easily as past generations. Moreover, a significant proportion of future tourists will most likely be from emerging economies in Asia and Africa, adding to the need for further surveys of visitor preferences.
In addition, the projected increase in the over 60s market in the years ahead will also entail a higher demand for medical tourism and accessible tourism. In Europe 25% of the population is already 60 years of age or older and that figure is expected to increase to 35% by 20503. A recent study4 commissioned by the European Commission shows that accessible tourism demand by people with special access needs from the European Union currently generated in 2012 a total of EUR 394 billion in terms of GDP within the European Union. In addition, multi-generational travel is expected to rise, adding to the need of accessible design and complex experiences able to cater a diverse array of interests of the travel party.
Travel preferences of emerging demographics Consider travel more important than other priorities, Who: Millennials including buying a home or a car Values experiences more than ownership What does it mean: born in the early-1980s to mid-1990s Is are more likely to create their own travel itineraries than to rely on the advice of travel agents or participate in package tours, using digital technologies. Share of the global population in 2020: 2.3 billion
1 United Nations World Tourism Organisation - European Union Tourism Trends, 2018 2 OECD- Tourism Trends and Policies, 2018 3 United Nations- World Population Prospects, 2017 4 European Commission, DG Enterprise and Industry- Economic Impact and Travel Patterns of Accessible Tourism in Europe, 2014
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Take more trips annually compared to other generations – at four or more per year. Trips tend to be shorter in duration compared to other demographic groups Likely to pick travel experiences that they consider to be “authentic” – preferring to head off the beaten track and “live like a local”.
Appears to be highly influenced by social media and Who: Generation Z recommendations by peers when making travel decisions. They are interested in taking risks on vacations and What does it mean: born in the late-1990s to early-2010s) having unique experiences, as well as trips focused on relaxation Share of the global population in 2020: 2.6 billion
Source: Airbnb- Airbnb and The Rise of Millennial Travel, 2016; Globetrender- From Boomers to Gen Z: Travel Trends Across the Generations, Globetrender, 2017; Future Travel Experience- Smart Security boosting passenger satisfaction levels as “second wave” begins, 2016.
2. Environmental The rapidly evolving state of the environment and the impacts of the climate change context.
November 2019 brought one of the worst floods of the century for Venice, a few weeks after our team conducted the baseline study visit. Decades of public and private sector inefficiencies were rapidly exposed to both residents and tourists alike, prompting the debate about disaster preparedness and resilience on the top of the public global agenda. Extreme weather events resulting from climate change will become more common and they will severely disrupt livelihoods, and, consequently, the travel and tourism sector. Larger seasonal variations are more likely to occur, amplifying the vulnerability of destinations relying on seasonal tourism.
Thus, investments and a pro-active approach to ensure the sustainable development and management of cities and ecosystems will be crucial in the next decades. With a current customer reluctance to pay a premium1 for more environmentally sustainable products or services, a large share of responsibility will rely on the active collaboration between public authorities and industry. There are several cross-sectoral synergies that need to be considered for greater resource efficiency:
a. Water – price structures reflecting water scarcity and responsible water management. Tourists need and consume significant amounts of water, especially through using amenities such as pools, spas, gardens, using artificial snowmaking attractions etc.
b. Food production and waste – Waste minimisation and attention to local food chains has the potential of having significant positive sustainability implications.
c. Energy – Both carbon surcharges and incentives prioritizing energy efficiency should continue to be used and consider a higher-ambition scenario. According to UNWTO’s latest research2, in
1 OECD- Green Innovation in Tourism, 2013 2 UNWTO- Transport-related CO2 Emissions of the Tourism Sector – Modelling Results, 2019
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2016, transport-related emissions from tourism contributed to 5% of all man-made emissions and are to increase to 5.3 % by 2030 if the current ambition is not increasing.
3. Economic Enabling technologies and automation are likely to continue to disrupt and transform the sector.
There are probably two known facts about new technologies: (1) they will continue to rapidly develop and reshape every known system so far and (2) public sector will be sluggish in capturing and regulating these transformations.
There is positive hype over most of the technological advancements, with industries promising to unlock more opportunities for people around world, and governments bearing “messages of peace” on the future of work and disappearance of routine tasks, but not jobs. A humbler reality is that the scale and long-term effects of current and future enabling technologies is unknown, and one needs to actively explore the implications sooner, rather than later. For cities, a nudge in this direction is that they are already experiencing significant disruptions in their physical environment (though the sharing economy or digital platforms-enabled services), prompting them to take actions, as is the case of our current Action Planning Network.
A couple of enabling technologies that will most likely redefine the tourism industry are:
a. Digital platforms and social media will continue to inform travel decisions, and, partially, replace intermediaries such as tour operators. Having a global presence and a global governance, digital platforms could prove difficult stakeholders to cooperate with, especially for cities.
b. The sharing economy is here to stay, despite growing criticism. Platforms such as Airbnb, Homeaway and Coachsurfing, as well as Uber, Lyft, MyTaxi have experienced a constant increase of users and have changed the very nature of the tourism industry: hosts or drivers become stakeholders and service-providers, alongside traditional actors such as hotel chains and licensed taxis.
c. Automation and artificial intelligence will shape the very nature of work. Recent studies show that a large array of jobs is highly susceptible to be vulnerable to automation1. One key aspect to be considered here is the current structure of employment in the tourism sector: many jobs in the tourism sector are seasonal, part-time, low-paid and menial. Moreover, the sector predominantly hires women, in 2013 women accounting for 56% of the total workforce involved in tourism in the EU2. Thus, any future change in the field is going to have an impact on an already vulnerable workforce. But while the disruption impact is imminent, it seems it’s not necessarily around the corner. As the anecdotal story3 of the world’s first
1 OECD- The Future of Work, OECD Employment Outlook, 2019 2 European Parliament- Tourism and the EuropeanUnion, recent trends and policy developments, 2015 3 Forbes- World's First Robot Hotel Fires Half Of Its Robots, 2019
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hotel hiring robots that recently decided to fire them shows, there is a long way to go until relevant use cases are developed.
d. Blockchain is set to offer a variety of applications in tourism, from more secure identity management, efficient communication between various tourism value chains and reduce costs associated with exchange rates among foreign currencies1. Interestingly, a core value proposition of the blockchain -based applications revolves around trust, promising a neutral, secure, transparent and peer-based system. It remains to be seen whether a technology will succeed gaining the trust that people seem to take away from their communities and leaders.
e. Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) will enable virtual tourism experiences, increasing the array of experiences that can be offered to visitors. On-site experiences at locations where there are growing environmental or cultural concerns could be effectively replaced by such alternative interactions.
4. Urban New hybrid forms of governance need to be taken into consideration to allow Governance cities and urban stakeholders to actively influence the future of the industry.
Cities experience disruption on several local policy areas when they record growing visitor numbers, as shown in the table below. And there is a fine and flexible line between a city welcoming and actively preparing for economic growth resulting from tourism and reaching a state of overtourism, especially through the rapid changes generated by enabling technologies. This diversity of effects has noteworthy implications on the expected response from local public authorities. Their default structure does not allow fast inter- departmental cooperation and response, spotting trends, raising awareness on emerging issues, testing new solutions, eliminating disincentives and actively monitoring the liveability of the city. In some European contexts, cities might not even have the mandate to address several policy topics, the responsibility falling under higher administrative levels- regions or national governments.
Causes of overtourism: Type of urban policy that is being influenced: The decreasing cost of travel and the increasing volume of low-cost airlines and cheap Environment policy coach travel, causing more people to take city breaks with multiple short-haul flights Economic policy each year. Urban mobility policy Sharing economy platforms (such as Airbnb) are creating problems in the housing Housing policy market and forcing rents up. The use of public space is free for visitors, but maintenance and repair costs must be Local fiscal policy met by residential taxpayers. Distribution policies that spread tourists to less visited (often residential) areas, which Social cohesion policy may inadvertently deteriorate the situation by bringing more tourists into residential Urban planning areas not fit for tourism. Strong seasonality that concentrates numbers over time to unsustainable levels. Economic policy Urban planning Fiscal policy
1 IBM- Has blockchain tourism reached its next destination?, 2019
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Low-paid tourism jobs that are temporary, casual and insecure without prospects. Economic policy Emerging markets with substantial numbers of additional tourists travelling Economic policy internationally and domestically. Reduced cost and travel time of transportation. Better, including faster and larger Environment policy aircraft as well as coaches that deposit more passengers with each arrival and arrive Economic policy more often. Urban mobility policy Source: based on initial analysis presented by Harold Goodwin- The challenge of overtourism, 2017.
This is why, the emergence of new governance frameworks such as Destination Management Organisation (DMO) is crucial for an integrated and participative approach for sustainable urban development. A DMO is a “leading organizational entity which may encompass the various authorities, stakeholders and professionals and facilitates partnerships towards a collective destination vision” 1 . It is responsible for addressing in a holistic way the interactions between the visitors, the industry that serves them, the community that hosts them and the environment in a broad sense (natural and cultural resources). The governance structures of DMOs vary from a single public authority to a public-private partnership model and covers all the elements that make up a tourism destination (attractions, amenities, access, marketing and pricing). It is generally funded by contributions from the stakeholders it represents and services it provides.
While the thinking behind a DMO, from a mere marketing role to one of management is a significant advancement, the fast changes that characterize the tourism sector require nurturing a culture of innovation for city authorities. In fact, much of the municipal innovation practice of the last decade has revolved around creatively engaging a broad range of internal and external stakeholders and giving them mandate for bringing improvements in urban systems. In this context, the URBACT method and the active use of URBACT Local Groups (ULG) could represent a key opportunity for unlocking the basis of new innovative governance frameworks at city level for supporting sustainable tourism practices.
1.3. The Policy Context
As also described in the phase I application, the thematic focus of our network- tourism- is strongly linked to the Cohesion Policy 2014-2020 Thematic Objective 3 Enhancing the competitiveness of SMEs, as it aims to create an enabling environment at local level for tourism related-industries and SMEs to contribute to both local economy, and to wider sustainable urban development. Furthermore, the network will focus on aspects such as the impact of sharing economy platforms, as well as fiscal and non-fiscal incentives available at local level, which are closely related to the debate on the role played by SMEs in an evolving economy. The topics of the network are also connected to the action in favour of tourism launched under the Programme for the Competitiveness of Enterprises and SMEs (COSME), such as supporting competitive and sustainable growth in the tourism sector and maximising synergies between tourism and creative industries. TFC is also actively exploring the environmental sustainability of tourism, topic which is relevant to strategic direction of EU2020 Strategy of promoting a more resource efficient and greener economy. In addition, TFC is also focusing on the social sustainability of tourism and how to enhance a positive impact on local communities.
The topic and sub-themes of the network are also connected to the Action plans developed by the Partnerships of the European Urban Agenda on different issues. The recommendations for good housing
1 UNWTO- A Practical Guide to Tourism Destination Management, 2007
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policies of the EU Urban Agenda Partnership on Housing, take into account measures to contrast the explosion of short-term rentals and its consequences on the affordable housing stock in the urban areas. The negative impact of this phenomenon has been identified as a key challenge by the Housing partnership and the network can offer valuable elements, taken from the experiences of the cities involved, to prevent speculation and promote affordable housing policies at local level.
The topics of the network are also focused on the work of the recently launched EU Urban Agenda Partnership for Culture and Heritage, with whom it will cooperate in order to fuel the Partnership with contents related to the relationship between cultural heritage and sustainable tourism in cities. The network will contribute to the activities of the Partnership on Culture and Heritage of the EU Urban Agenda, enabling the adhesion of its partners to the Partnership and the active contribution to the definition of a European Action Plan with the innovative contents and approaches emerged along the project, in a mutual exchange of visions that will go along the Implementation Phase of the network. The elements emerged along the network activities will fuel also the debate on the implementation of the Action plans of other European Urban Agenda Partnerships focusing on crucial aspects faced by Tourism-Friendly Cities, such as Jobs and Skills in the Local Economy, Housing, Urban Poverty, Circular Economy, Digital Transition, Urban Mobility and Security in Public Spaces.
Furthermore, the network will leverage city partner’s own networks as further described in section 2 and 3, with the aim of progressively disseminating inputs and approaches on an evolving sector, such as tourism, from different sources. Already during phase I, the Mayor of Braga, Mr. Ricardo Rio has spoken at the Cities Forum conference on January 30th 2020 on the role of cities for championing sustainable tourism practices and referenced Braga’s commitment in the TFC network as partner city. The aim of this widespread presence in different contexts is not only to promote the network activities and results but to be on the forefront of the debate, combined with a close connection to the orientations of the Cohesion Policy 2021-2027 and in particular of the European Urban Initiative.
1.4. City Examples
This section provides a summary of the state of the art policy measures currently employed by cities to champion sustainable tourism practices. Mirroring the cross-sectoral nature of the tourism sector, these measures cover a large array of actions and reflect innovative practices. Some are initiated by local authorities, while others by NGOs or companies.
The examples generally stem from the partner cities in the Tourism-Friendly Cities APN in order to reflect a key challenge connected to urban policy around sustainable tourism: it is not a lack of ideas and practices, but rather a challenge of scale, coordination, governance and prioritising funding.
In order to give a sense of the profound changes that city stakeholders need to embark on for achieving sustainable tourism practices, we have used the model of behavioural change-informed policy making which shows the various possible interventions, mostly from a public sector and hence top-down, perspective. This is only to show that sometimes prioritising only one (low budget) measure such as providing information might have little effect if fiscal incentives are not rightly weighted in. For example, several cities in the EU still give subsidies to local airports, prompting significant seasonal flows or market destinations as party- experiences, while in the same time focus their awareness campaigns on condemning party behaviours. Conversely, focusing only on banning something or fiscal incentives, without paying attention to social norms
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and awareness levels of the issue, might also make certain measure ineffective and leave tourists and tourism industry confused.
This is why, we consider the holistic way (detailed in section 3) in which the Tourism-Friendly Cities APN seeks to approach the development of the Integrated Action Plans, as well use the ULGs as living labs, one of the first ever efforts of city-to-city cooperation to actively explore how local communities and tourists can work together for urban sustainability.
Intervention Eliminate Restrict Fiscal Non-fiscal Persuasion Changes in the Changes in the category choice choice disincentives/ incentives / Provision physical default policy incentives and of environment disincentives informatio n City Utrecht - Venice- Genoa- City The Dubrovnik- Venice- Limited FairBnB examples Ban on Outlaw tax on Goodtraveler Respect number of hotel non- tourism the city public trash permits authentic campaign containers products sold as souvenirs
Source: table adaptation after the House of Lords, Science and Technology Select Committee- Behaviour Change, 2011 and further research conducted by the author.
Utrecht – Experiencing an economic boom and expanding rapidly, the city of Utrecht has adopted end of 2019 a temporary ban on issuing planning permits for hotels and related hospitality functions. This measure has been taken preventively, until the city can strategically assess how it wants to position itself related to tourism as a local economic activity. The measure was also informed by the recent overtourism experience of Amsterdam.
Venice- With growing complaints from local artisans and under scrutiny of the transformation of the historical city centre in a theme park, Venice is currently considering outlawing shops that sell non-authentic products sold as souvenirs.
Krakow- In order to preserve the cultural identity and liveability level of its most popular tourist area of the city, Krakow has adopted in 2018 the Cultural Park special zoning regulations. These cover a large array of regulations from areas designated for street musicians and urban design guidelines.
Genoa- In 2012, Genoa signed an official agreement between City Hall and the Chamber of Commerce on behalf of the tourism sector, regulating the level of tax that needs to be paid by hospitality businesses operating in the city. The mechanism is widely spread in the world, but the current system implemented by Genoa has two key aspects: it provides a governance and common decision-making process for tourism stakeholders to influence the destination of funds collected through the tax and, secondly, the city managed to negotiate with Airbnb to also pay the tax. Negotiations are still ongoing with other hospitality online platforms, such as booking.com.
The Goodtraveler – The international NGO provides an offsetting scheme for air travel. Environmentally- aware tourists can buy “clean miles” (offsets) for the distance covered by their flight and the money is invested by the Goodtraveler in carbon reduction projects. Currently, for 1000 air miles, one has to pay $2.
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Dubrovnik – As a response to overtourism, the city has begun in 2018 the “Respect the city” campaign, aiming to increase awareness among tourists of the impact of their visit for local residents and general liveability of the city centre.
Rovaniemi- Situated in the heart of Lapland, Rovaniemi provides an unique environment both for living and conducting a business. Extreme weather, as well as the fragile ecosystem of the Arctic, requires a lot of responsibility from every stakeholder in the tourism sector in order to guarantee the safety of visitors and preservation of the environment. In this context, the “Visit Rovaniemi” agency has compiled a guideline aimed at businesses thinking of opening up a line of services in the area entitled Tourism ABC. The ABC covers every regulation that a business needs to comply to.
Venice- The city of Venice decided to limit the number of public trash containers in order to diminish the chance of tourists not complying to selective waste disposal guidelines. This measure was chosen after various pilots which included experimentations with various sizes of trash bins, as well as hiring local police for rule enforcement. The behaviour promoted right now is for tourists and residents to dispose of their trash in spaces where most likely recycling rules are obeyed: residencies, and hospitality businesses. Fines have been raised, as well as monitoring measures for residents and visitors to follow the law.
FairBnB – Started in 2016 as a cooperative movement in Venice, Amsterdam and Bologna, Fairbnb is home- sharing platform booking platform that promotes and funds local initiatives and projects. It is currently expanding to several European and international destinations and it is expected to be fully operational platform this year. It aims to offer a fair and less-disruptive alternative to existing home-sharing platforms, by verifying that only one listing per owner is permitted and investing in local project that can offset the disturbances brought by increased number of tourists to residential neighbourhoods.
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2. SECTION 2 – PARTNER PROFILES
2.1. Introduction
The TFC partnership is a unique group of cities dealing with the common challenge of making the impact of tourism more sustainable for their respective urban contexts and local communities, but starting from different situations which represent the variety of the European landscape of tourism cities and towns.
The composition of the partnership offers a strong balance between cities from more developed EU regions (Genoa, Venice, Rovaniemi, Utrecht, Dún Laoghaire) and from less developed EU regions (Cáceres, Braga, Druskininkai, Krakow, Dubrovnik). It also offers a balanced representation of the different European regions, with a specific focus on the more tourist ones (Southern Europe with Venice, Genoa, Braga and Cáceres; Central Europe and Baltic area with Krakow and Druskininkai; Western Europe with Utrecht and Dún Laoghaire; Scandinavia with Rovaniemi; Balkans with Dubrovnik). Three newcomer cities to URBACT were included in the partnership (Rovaniemi, Druskininkai, Cáceres).
The partnership also reunites an unique array of city experiences and expertise, including elements which represent some of the main topics recognized by the contemporary debate on tourism: cities symbol of “overtourism“” such as Venice and Dubrovnik, cities with UNESCO World Heritage Sites or Creative Cities (Genoa, Venice, Cáceres, Dubrovnik, Krakow and Braga), cities with spa tourism (Druskininkai), cities with
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religious tourism (Braga and Krakow), cities located close to main tourist destinations (Utrecht and Dún Laoghaire, respectively to Amsterdam and Dublin), cities with seasonal tourism (Rovaniemi and Dubrovnik).
Many of the partners are prominent actors of the debate on the impact of tourism in cities and some of them are already testing solutions such as imposing limits to the numbers of cruise ship anchoring the harbour (Dubrovnik), new dispersion techniques and strong awareness campaign targeting tourists (Venice) or ban on issuing new hotel urban planning permits (Utrecht), while others are dealing with the need of promoting sustainable tourism after dramatic events (as Genoa, after the Morandi bridge collapse) or in a wider action of contrast to climate change or global pandemic (as Rovaniemi, situated on the Arctic Circle, one of the areas of the world most affected by climate change, warming at a rate of almost twice the global average and currently experiencing one of the worst tourist seasons as a consequence of the outbreak of the Coronavirus in China).
Other partners are conceiving tourism as a powerful leverage for economic growth and recovery from crisis in their regions (Cáceres, Braga and Druskininkai), while others are just recently including tourism as a relevant part of their local economies, but trying to manage the effects created by the sector on housing, retail, services and mobility (Utrecht and Dún Laoghaire).
Tourism-friendly Cities final transnational meeting pf phase I took place in Braga between January 28-29,2020
The cross-sectoral impact of all these challenges on cities, having strong elements in common, has become even more clear during the phase I city visits and transnational meetings. Going beyond the mere comparison of experiences and good practices, TFC partner cities acknowledged their main common challenges revolved around testing new governance models and being able to listen to stakeholders beyond the usual suspects/powerful lobby. This is why, all partner cities found valuable expertise to share, that can be adaptable and replicable also by cities of different size or affected by different types of tourism and inform each of the IAPs development processes and making use of the ULG to test different governance set-ups and innovative solutions.
2.2. Content
The content presented below stems from the information requested from each city partner online before and after the city visits, online calls and conferences, focus groups, site visits and interviews during city
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visits, as well as interactive sessions from the kick-off and final transnational meetings of phase I. It aims to give an updated state of play for each city, both in terms of its challenges connected to the transition to sustainable tourism and with progress registered so far on ULG consolidation and securing local resources for the implementation of phase II at local level.
In order to ensure efficient city visits, we (LE and LP) asked city partners to update their city profile using a template that we provided. The updated city profiles were presented and further refined in the kick-off TFC meeting in Genoa in September 2019. I shared afterwards with city partners a baseline city visit factsheet, which was covering all the methodological and logistical aspects of the visit and was also a tool to be shared with tentative ULG members. We agreed with each city a deadline until which a draft agenda of the upcoming visit and a list of stakeholders considered for the ULG would be shared. With 2-3 weeks prior to the scheduled city visits, we had a call with each host city to review the draft agenda and stakeholder list and make any necessary adjustments. Most city visits were also attended by the LP and were highly interactive, all of them having a focus group with the already existing or emerging ULG, in-depth meeting with political representatives (Mayor or deputy Mayor) and site visits guided by local stakeholders. After each city visit, I shared the TFC overview presentation and a reminder to the online mapping tool of challenges and potential focus of IAP and expected city-level changes that became the base of our discussions during the city visit. Finally, during the final meeting of phase I in Braga end of January 2020 we reviewed as a network the results of the online mapping tool exercise, and co-designed core elements that are presented in section 3 on methodology of the transnational exchange and network outputs. A final online conference is scheduled with all network partners end of February 2020 to review the last versions of phase II application and baseline study that will be submitted by the LP on behalf of all the network. There will be 7 additional days to integrate the feedback of the online conference until the final submission deadline.
2.2.1 City profile: Genoa (Italy)
Genoa, with its waterfront, is a city of almost 600.000 inhabitants with thousands of years of history. The role of the port and industry in the city has, until few years ago, always relegated its historical and cultural soul to second place, together with the economic potential offered by tourism. What was not secondary, on the other hand, was its ability to attract investments and people, thanks to services and the high quality of life. This summary underscores Genoa’s potential that is still dormant today. In 2004, during the events of the Capital of Culture, Genoa was defined “The last art city in Europe still to be discovered.” Genoa has changed drastically in recent years. To combat the industrial crisis, a new identity as a cultural city of tourism emerged, culminating in the recognition as a World Heritage Site on the part of UNESCO in 2006. It became an attractive place for research and industrial innovation and potential headquarters of a more differentiated service-based economy.
The city is successfully completing a non-easy transition from the industrial city to a knowledge-driven model, giving now more room to tourism. This transformation, which physically can be represented by the Porto Antico redevelopment project designed by Renzo Piano in 1992, required a new city narrative and related communication strategy. Part of this strategy started successfully thanks to the URBACT project CityLogo, which gave a new brand to the city (Genova More Than This) and continued with the participation, as lead partner, to the URBACT project, Interactive Cities. At local level, there is also a strong commitment and effort by the administration to increase the image of the city as a quality tourist destination. Communication and branding are just beginning. Now that the tourism potential awareness is at its peak, Genoa needs a new participatory process, to better build its own identity of historical, sustainable and tourist city and make some strategic economic decision concerning growth of tourism.
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Also, the disruptive effects of tourism for local quality of life are becoming evident. The offer of short rental tourist apartments has multiplied, particularly in the historic centre: for travellers, they are certainly an opportunity to have most of the attractions at hand and to save money. Liguria is the region of Italy with the highest density of tourist apartments: 2.34 per square km. In Genoa there are more than 1,800 ads only on Airbnb, about 400 on Expedia and many others on the various platforms for short term tourist rentals, such as Booking or Homeaway. About 56% of the ads come from small owners who offer only one accommodation on the tourism market, the rest belong to multi-hosts who manage more than one property. In many cases these are agencies that manage the properties of owners who live elsewhere or large real estate investors, who are well aware of the profitability of apartments in the historic centres of cities with a tourist vocation. Consequently, the price of rents grew rapidly: it is difficult, especially for younger people, to find homes at an affordable price to start independent life paths. In addition, the classic neighbourhood local businesses are closing and they are replaced for souvenir shops, while during the low tourist season degradation is accentuated. As it already happens in other tourist cities where the gentrification process is more pronounced, the real risk is that the old town will become a district perfect to visitors, but not inhabitants.
Key facts
Partner resources and IAP
Genoa is at key strategic point in its development, as the local economy is only now diversifying to include tourism as one of its main sectors. This is why, Genoa realizes that it needs to consolidate its ULG practices to address conflicting visions on growth and direction of the tourism sector for Genoa’s local economy. This was clearly identified by the partner city, during the city visit and follow up discussion in the ULG. This is why, Genoa has worked to commit new resources in coordination and animation of the ULG, gather diverse and strong political support and leverage its existing networks and previous URBACT experience and knowledge.
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a. Political support: There is strong political support for TFC at local level, as well as a stable political environment- next local election will take place in 2022. Mrs. Laura Gaggero, Deputy Mayor for Marketing and Tourism, is the main reference at political level for Tourism-Friendly Cities network. She attended the kick-off phase I meeting in Genoa, she presented the project during the National Assembly of Italian Municipalities in Arezzo (November 2019) and she often mentions the activities of the network in interviews and round tables. Also, Ms. Simonetta Cenci, Deputy Mayor for Urban Planning, and Ms. Paola Bordilli, Deputy Mayor for Commerce and Big events, supports the network, each of them for a specific relevant dimension of sustainable tourism: they attended, together with Laura Gaggero, the first ULG meeting, giving the key guidelines and the priorities of the City Council for the future TFC URBACT journey. During the city visit, the LE had interviews with all the deputy mayors mentioned, as well as with Mayor Marco Bucci, all of them confirming their strategic interest for the sustainable development of tourism industry, as well as the pressure they feel from industry stakeholders to encourage growth. b. Networks:
The City of Genoa is an active member of several international networks that are important for the future capitalization and dissemination of the main outputs of Tourism-Friendly Cities. First of all, European Cities Marketing, the main EU network for the city marketing and promotion. Secondly, an international network for cooperation in the field of cultural tourism, called “Si tous les ports du monde” (chaired by the City of Saint-Malo), and, most importantly, Eurocities, the most important network for the big cities in EU, where Genoa is currently Chair of two Working Groups, the first one on “City branding and International Relations” and the second one on “Digital Citizenship”. Both these groups could host sessions dedicated to Tourism-Friendly Cities during phase II: Eurocities is interested in contacts with our network and, in the early future, Genoa could promote a new group focused on sustainable tourism. Finally, as a follow-up of Alter ECO project, Genoa has been invited to take part in the activities of MED Sustainable Tourism Community, a Community of 18 former MED projects, focused on the development of a sustainable and responsible tourism. c. Previous experience and tentative resources for financing the IAP These are the three main projects that have been successfully implemented by Genoa and are strongly related to the transformation that the city had in the last 20-25 years, from and industrial and maritime city, to a city of cultural tourism:
URBACT CITY LOGO (2012/2015): The city of Genoa was partner city of the CITY LOGO project, led by the city of Utrecht. City Logo set the goal of finding a new and efficient approach to territorial marketing after the enormous effort of the city in 2004 (European Capital of Culture) and the recognition on the part of UNESCO in 2006 of its system of Rolli Palaces, which gave a strong contribution to the visibility of Genoa as a tourist destination. From this came the need for a new logo for the city, and of a coherent branding strategy, to increase the destination’s reputation of the city in Italy and abroad.
InterregMed Alter-Eco (2016/2018): Alter-Eco was an Interreg Med project, led by the city of Valencia, aimed at alternative tourist strategies to enhance the local sustainable development of tourism by promoting Mediterranean identity. Starting from this point came the idea to identify an area in the Genoa’s neighbourhoods, where pilot actions to discover new tourist routes could be implemented. The actions identified are therefore aimed at the revitalization of the ancient attractions introducing innovative systems to satisfy modern-day tourists.
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URBACT Interactive Cities (2015/2018): Genoa led the interactive Cities project focused on the social media communication to provide an image of the city as a touristic and attractive destination through a shared storytelling. The use of social media and digital tools in public administrations stayed at the core of this idea.
Also, the development of the IAP in 2020 and 2021 within TFC corresponds to the updating process of the action plan of the current local development strategy. This will allow an alignment of the activities outlined in the future IAP with future available funding from EU 2021-2017 programmes, as well as national and regional funds.
d. Contributing knowledge to the network The interactive marketplace exercise conducted by the network rendered these core experiences that Genoa can actively contribute to TFC and especially to the thematic knowledge clusters explained in section 3.
Experience with In order to manage the Tourism Tax management system, starting from 2012 a Board hybrid has been created involving the Chamber of Commerce (that represents also hotel governance owners) and Genoa Municipality. The Board decides every year the funding for projects mechanisms of city marketing or neighbourhood improvement. By doing so, it has also created an incentive for a large array of stakeholders to adhere and use the same city marketing strategies and materials. Since 2017 the tax is also successfully applied to Airbnb listed apartments, after direct negotiations with Airbnb. Experience with Successful co-design and development of new branding for Genoa, using the URBACT branding and use Method. Successful adoption of the new branding by city and tourism stakeholders. of digital tools Ex: https://urbact.eu/make-genoa-part-you Experience with The open dialogue and the co-creation established in the City Logo ULG, contributed ULG engagement for a large part to the realization of the new brand identity of the city; the new logo of the city, Genova More Than This, in fact has been designed by a team of designers, thanks to the suggestions and the discussion which took place during the ULGs. It was a participatory approach and this was part of its success.
In addition, Genoa has a strong engagement as Lead Partner of TFC network, offering not only coordination, but also championing new methodologies and thematic content that can contribute to the knowledge exchange of the network. This is why, during the kick-off meeting in phase I, LE and LP worked together to design the living lab of Genoa exercise in order to map the sub-themes of the Tourism-friendly cities network.
This exercise, the living lab of Genoa, was important not only for mapping sub-themes that our network should built on, but mostly to introduce the other city partners to a new framework of working- moving away from showing the positive sides of tourism and richness of (living) heritage towards actively exploring distressed areas. From this point, Genoa is an uniquely positioned lead partner. The city does not yet have a strong touristic identity, but it begins to experience growth from the sector and disruption in its housing market. It has successfully leveraged its previous URBACT experience (Interactive Cities network) to consolidate a strong ULG-approach in managing what has now become an
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URBACT good practice- the tourism tax management system. Genoa team understands that the decisions that will be taken in the next couple of years on tourism will have ripple effects for the city’s future.
This is why, we co-designed a city site visits showcasing: urban poverty and informal economy (prostitution, street commerce) in close proximity of the UNESCO Rolli palaces area complex, waste management system adaptations for touristic areas, perception of local entrepreneurs towards uninformed tourists, social businesses relying on tourists as clients and residents engagement in cultural projects for sharing their living heritage with other city residents and tourists. Each participant attending the kick-off meeting had a “secret identity” (resident, municipality, tourist, tourism entrepreneur) and a “secret mission” of uncovering potential social, environmental and economic implications of the things witnesses and the interviews taken during the site visit. The debates and working group sessions that followed afterwards informed the main lists of sub themes, which were further refined during partner city visits and are presented in section 3.
The URBACT Local Group (ULG)
During phase I a large number of stakeholders has been involved in the creation of the ULG for TFC. At the moment these are the current members: the Chamber of Commerce; Association of Hotel owners; Social Media Team partners; IgersGenova (community of local Instagrammers); Civic associations; ESN GEG – Erasmus Student Network; Cultural department of the Municipality; Liguria Region; Aquarium; Porto Antico Association; Associations of tourist guides; Palazzo Ducale (cultural association); University; Historical old shops; Cruise Companies; Port Authority; Airport; Convention Bureau; Urban Planning Professionals; Fairbnb.coop Association. Moreover, Genoa is planning to include the municipal company in charge of the waste collection system, called AMIU, and different academic departments of the University, such as Economic Tourism and Urban Planning. Further enlargement of the ULG will be considered on the issues that will be addressed.
The Project Coordinator appointed the ULG coordinator, Mr. Antonio Pastorino, Head of Participation and Communication at Urban Planning Department, Genoa Municipality, after a consultation with the political level and several members of the former ULG. Antonio coordinates the activities relating to the planning of the areas under transformation, in the frame of the City Masterplan, with particular reference to the transforming districts, with assessment of the resulting impacts (urbanistic and environmental). He also
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manages the different phases of participation and/or consultation of the stakeholders, taking part to each stage of the participatory process, and providing reports and feed-backs of the different consultations.
He has also prepared feasibility studies and preliminary projects with reference to new EU call for proposals where the Municipality of Genoa has applied for funding (in thematic areas linked to urban planning); he has also managed further development and implementation of the projects, in case of selection, until their finalisation. Antonio was the coordinator of the metropolitan working groups of CAT-MED project (former Med project focused on sustainable development in historic Mediterranean cities), composed by public bodies, associations, NGOs and stakeholders. Preparation of the steering committee of Genoa and the final CAT-MED conference on sustainable urban development in Genoa (March 3rd/4th 2011).
The first step taken to kick-off the TFC ULG was to involve almost all the members of the previous ULGs (City Logo and Interactive Cities). Previous members suggested new actors to be considered given the topic of the TFC network, while other entities contacted Genoa directly to be part of the ULG, as a result of news they saw in local media about the start of the project, as is the case of Fairbnb Genoa, the experimental platform for equal tourist rental.
The first meeting took place on December 17th with 25 participants. The ULG saw also the presence of three Deputy Mayor: Dep. Mayor for Urban Planning, Dep. Mayor for Tourism and Territorial Marketing and Dep. Mayor for Commerce. The first meeting was the occasion to present the aim of this APN and the path that is expected to be taken by the city with the help of all the relevant stakeholder. From their side, all the participants declared their interest in an active exchange with the administration, with a great impact in acquiring knowledge and opinions on further development directions. A second plenary ULG will be held on February 26th for a wrap-up on what happened during the Braga transnational meeting and future plans for phase II.
2.2.2 City profile: Braga (Portugal)
Braga has a rich heritage from different ages, from Roman to Medieval ages and is most associated with religious tourism. In addition, the Sanctuary of Bom Jesus de Monte has just recently been awarded the World Heritage of UNESCO designation. More recently, it was EU Youth Capital and European City of Sport. These distinctions would not have been possible without the partnership between the city, the local agents and the commitment of the entire population to participate and contribute to the dissemination of what the city has the best to offer. This dynamic city, once the youngest in Europe, has also been selected as the Creative City of UNESCO in the field of Media Arts, concentrating several poles of creativity that interweave art, science, education, technology and research in a local and cooperative plan. This contagious dynamism is proof of the commitment in the development of the city to improve the conditions both for the locals and for visitors.
In the last years, tourism has registered an average growth rate of 19% per year which is expected to continue. In this process, it is essential to keep the authenticity of the city, as hospitality, simplicity and openness define the local population. Faced with this exponential growth, one of the aims is to encourage tourists for longer stays, improving the local economy on a sustainable basis and also being able to consider shared experiences by both residents and visitors. Several trends connected with gentrification of some parts of the city have been observed, but there is still insufficient documented evidence for this.
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Key facts
Partner resources and IAP
Braga has made significant progress to balance a good quality of life for residents with diversifying the tourism offer. However, the economic benefits from tourism sector are relatively limited, as the length of overnight stays is still limited (1.8 nights/tourist), and the city does not have a fiscal instrument (e.g. tourism city tax) in place. This economic reality is strongly connected to what the city identified as its main challenges to be tackled by the ULG: outdated city image connected solely with religious tourism and limited ability for co-creation of a new tourism strategy and testing of small scale actions that can consolidate collaborative practices between city residents, tourists and tourism industry. Because of this, Braga has worked to commit resources to empowering new local actors to lead a participatory process of IAP development and has reaffirmed its strong political support.
a. Political support: Mayor Ricardo Rio is very engaged in the URBACT programme. He was a speaker in the URBACT City Festival in Lisbon in 2018 and he always support the presence of Braga in different networks. In addition, when he speaks about the international relations of the city, he always mentions Braga’s presence in URBACT networks. Also, as Braga hosted the final phase I meeting of the TFC network, Mayor Rio attended the first part of the meeting and made a presentation about the city and its commitment to the topic of sustainable tourism. He also is very engaged in tourism issues and in his previous term he had under direct authority the tourism portfolio, as he wanted to encourage a more sustainable approach to tourism in Braga. In his current term, the second one, he has delegated the tourism portfolio to Altino Bessa, Deputy Mayor, who is directly involved in TFC and has supported the selection process of the ULG coordinator.
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b. Networks: Braga is a member of different networks that can disseminate our outputs, like EUROCITIES, Global Parliament of Mayors, ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, OECD – Champions Mayors for Inclusive Growth or UCCLA – Union of Portuguese Speaking Capital Cities. c. Previous experience and tentative resources for financing the IAP Braga’s current tourism strategy revolves around the concept of Travel in Time. The strategy needs to be updated with a new integrated action plan and a stronger participatory process, so it is a perfect match in terms of timing with the development of the IAP under the TFC network. The IAP will integrate the new available funding sources from the EU 2021-2027 funds, as well as other national funds connected especially with cultural heritage and social innovation. Also, Braga has strong URBACT experience, being partner in networks such as Boostino and My Generation at work. d. Contributing knowledge to the network
The interactive marketplace exercise conducted by the network rendered these core experiences that Braga can actively contribute to TFC and especially to the thematic knowledge clusters explained in section 3.
Experience with Braga has been chosen as a new home by 15 000 Brazilians since 2015, as a direct strong response to the good quality of life and friendly character of the city. Over the previous investment in years, the city centre saw a great deal of urban renewal and investment, related to good quality of growth in tourism and economic activity in that area. The city has room to grow in life tourism, given the potential of the city centre to accommodate further infrastructure and tourism-related equipment in the space provided by some previously abandoned Baroque buildings undergoing or awaiting renovation. The current investments have had a strong focus on neighbourhood investments and support of cultural and creative industries. Experience with Gamification strategies using social media used by the Chamber of Commerce in order branding and use to encourage residents and tourists to try new restaurants and cafes (the Restaurant of digital tools challenge). QR-code use in the provision of information on historical and archaeological sites related to businesses and museums around the city.
Large-scale events related both with the Roman and Baroque historical heritage of the city, and with celebrations such as the most popular holidays in Braga (Saint John’s Day), Christmas, Holy Week, Easter, and other such occasions.
Sports and international competitions or festivals to promote the city throughout Europe and in the Northwestern corner of Iberia, in a smaller scale.
Experience with Braga created the Participatory Budget in 2014 and since then it is seen in Portugal as stakeholder an example regarding this tool. It has a Participatory Budget only for the school engagement community and one for the youth, named “You Decide”, which is also implemented by the young people who win the contests. On a different level, Braga promotes a Youth Parliament in the schools, giving the opportunity to being a politician for a day and have several Councils with the civil society to counsel the City, like the Youth Municipal Council, The Social and Economic Council, The Education Council and the Tourism Development Council.
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The URBACT Local Group (ULG)
During phase I, Braga invited the stakeholders represented in the Advisory Board for the Development of Tourism (formed in 2018 with a consultative role) to express their tentative interest for the emerging ULG of TFC and to propose new entities that could be interested. Currently the ULG is composed by:
Academic Institutions: University of Minho, Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences of Braga and The Polytechnic Institute of Cávado and Ave Schools: Professional School of Tourism – PROFITECLA, Secondary School Sá de Miranda – Reception Course, Secondary School Alberto Sampaio, EsproMinho Braga – Events Organization school, Public Institutions: Invest Braga, Theatro Circo, Human Power Hub, CIM Cávado | Intermunicipal Community of Cávado; Porto and North of Portugal Tourism Region. Church: Archdiocese of Braga and Brotherhood of Bom Jesus NGO’s: ACESAS | Cultural Intervention Group; Saint John´s Festivities & Ethnographic Group of Folklore of University of Minho Private Associations: Chamber of Commerce of Braga, Memories of the Misericórdia of Braga Interpretation Centre – Raio Palace Museum Local entrepreneurs related to tourism: José Rocha and Carlos Teixeira (city photographers), Maria João Moreira (tour guide), Jorge Vilela and Yorick Viche, (local tourism agencies), Paulo Vilaça, Teresa Bastos and Sofia Rocha (Business owners).
Braga has commissioned as ULG leaders a newly formed cooperative-based NGO, the Minho de Porta Aberta. This group is made up from professionals related to history, archaeology, geography and other heritage and tourism-related fields, who used to function as an informal group of supporters of Braga's history and heritage, offering guided tours for over 15 000 people since 2016. This new role is a recognition from the public authority of the active engagement of NGO members in the ongoing discussion on the future of tourism for the city, and is an effort to go beyond the usual suspects and actively involve them in the process. This cooperative is present in the field of action related to tourism, and keeps contact to several other stakeholders around the historic city centre, like hotels, hostels, restaurants, bakeries, souvenir shops, etc. More specifically, Mr. João Gomes from Minho de Porta Aberta will act as ULG coordinator.
João Gomes is a historian and history teacher who has worked in research projects in Braga since 2007 and managed tourism projects since 2016 (Minho Free Walking Tours). He co-founded the Minho de Porta Aberta cultural cooperative and their free walking tour projects, in the Braga historical city centre, in the Sanctuary of Bom Jesus, in Guimarães and throughout the Minho region. Mr. Chisoka Simões and Mr. Miguel Marado will help coordinate the ULG network alongside João, as members of the Minho de Porta Aberta cooperative. João is also member of an NGO’s related to sustainable management of the territory (Katavus - Associação Ambiental e Cultural; Cultural and Environmental Association), to political projects regarding the sustainable city and is a part of a network of entrepreneurs, businesses, tourism and museum technicians who actively engage with the tourism stakeholders and tourists in Braga.
The selection of the ULG coordinator was done after several consultations with Braga’s Deputy Mayor for Tourism, Altino Bessa, and several members from the in the Advisory Board for the Development of Tourism. In order to prepare and clarify the role and scope of work, the ULG Coordinator and his team had 3 different
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meetings with the City of Braga team and one with the Deputy Mayor for Tourism. The team of “Minho de Porta Aberta” also participated in the two days transnational meeting of the TFC network in Braga, on the 27 and 28 of January 2020. End of February 2020 a new meeting of the ULG will be organized to cover next steps of the network and work plan until pending approval of phase II.
2.2.3 City profile: Caceres (Spain)
Cáceres is a town of 96.720 inhabitants (2019) located in the Autonomous Community of Extremadura in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula. Cáceres become popular among tourists for its Old Town as an urban ensemble of 9ha surrounded by a wall of 1,174m which, nowadays are part of the United Nation World Heritage List (UNESCO). Therefore, during the last years the historic centre of the Old Town has being characterised by a very strong process of gentrification. In Cáceres, as it happened to other cities, the gentrification process occurred in the old part of the city, where old garrets were carefully remodelled by professionals that sell them tripling their price. In Cáceres, the occupation of the Old Town is now at its peak. The historical centre of Cáceres is one of the most beautiful urban spaces in Spain to live. For years, architects like Hernández Mancha, musical promoters like Paco Martín, writers like Julián Rodríguez Marcos, basketball coaches like Julbe lived in Cáceres. Thus, in the last five years 700 rehabilitation proceedings have been processed and real estate agents and promoters are already buying, subdividing, restoring and selling at a good price houses in the Old Town of Cáceres.
The real scale of this ongoing process of gentrification remains still unknown, as Caceres is struggling with understanding the use of the old town by residents, tourists and visitors. Caceres has many day visitors that go unaccounted for in city statistics, most of them spending time in the city as part of an itinerary offered by various tour operator and online platforms.
Moreover, Caceres, as well as the entire region of Extremadura, experiences high rates of unemployment. With 20,55% of the population being unemployed in 2019, and an aging population, tourism is seen as a sector that can support the community to develop and create jobs. However, given the current nature of tourism practiced locally, very little economic and social value is captured locally. Visitors spent generally 4- 5 hours in Caceres and only make minor expenses and have limited interactions with residents. The city has begun to make significant steps in developing monitoring tools and implementing smart city solutions for measuring people flown in the city center. This data will be useful for taking evidence-based decisions, while strategic actions for the sustainable development of tourism still need to be agreed with a wide array of stakeholders.
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Key facts
Partner resources and IAP
In spite of the rich historical heritage, Caceres is struggling with an unclear branding and unique value proposition that could effectively increase tourist’s length of stay and their contribution to the local economy. Most of the communication about Caceres is done by traditional tour operators and online platforms, that present the city only as part of an itinerary. This is why, Caceres realizes that only though a strong partnership between the city, the tourism industry and the residents, it can update its branding, and most importantly find a way of pushing for stronger actions to change the tourism profile. For this, Caceres has identifying several key resources it can commit to the process of IAP development.
a. Political support: Following local elections in 2019, the new elected public officials in Caceres strongly support the sustainable development of tourism. Main political support is given by Mr. Jorge Villar, Tourism councillor within Caceres Municipality, working directly with the Mayor. Mr Villar was directly involved in TFC activities, presenting Caceres priorities within the ULG meeting conducted during the city visit, and attending several of the sessions of the city visit. As a new city in the URBACT programme, the city of Caceres has also established close contact with the Spanish URBACT NUP, whose representative also attended the initial ULG meeting.
b. Networks: Caceres is an active member of several networks where TFC outputs can be disseminated: the Spanish network of Smart Cities, Network of World Heritage Cities of Spain, Spanish Network of SMART Touristic Destinations and the Silver Route Cooperation Network.
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c. Previous experience and tentative resources for financing the IAP Caceres is about to start to develop its strategic documents for 2021-2017 period. Thus, the focus of the IAP will be to directly inform the new tourism strategy for 2021-2017, while the future actions outlined in the IAP will be funded from EU 2021-2027 funds, as well as local, regional and national funds. The IAP will also build on several of the lesson learned of the implementation of the current sustainable and integrated Urban Development Strategy “CreaCeres”, especially concerning the preservation of the historical city centre. Also, Caceres has relevant experience in working in transnational projects from “Destino Frontera” (Frontier Destiny) funded through Interreg VA Spain-Portugal POCTEP.
d. Contributing knowledge to the network The interactive marketplace exercise conducted by the network rendered these core experiences that Caceres can actively contribute to TFC and especially to the thematic knowledge clusters explained in section 3.
Experience with The aim of the Historic City of Caceres Consortium, formed in 2013, is to promote hybrid economic, technical and administrative cooperation and collaboration between the governance Administrations and Consortia Entities. Areas of work of the consortium include: joint structures management of public services in the historical area, conservation, defense, revaluation and restoration of the historical, monumental and cultural heritage of the City of Caceres and their surroundings. Experience with The Associations of neighbours of Monumental City (AVV Ciudad Monumental) is a stakeholder neighbour’s associations formed in 2017 in Caceres, which took the mission to engagement facilitate the dialogue between residents of the UNESCO protected city centre and the relevant public authorities. It has successfully managed community-based processes that translated the claims of the residents in solution-driven requests for changing urban planning and zoning rules.
The URBACT Local Group (ULG)
During phase I, Caceres focused on getting familiarized with the URBACT method and the role of the ULG. As a relatively small city with a limited number of stakeholders and approaches, the project coordinator focused on how to engage new entities that had not been on the radar of the Municipality before. This was the case of the Associations of neighbours of Monumental City (AVV Ciudad Monumental), that participated for the first time in a participatory process with key local decision-makers on mapping the challenges most relevant to be addressed by the ULG. After consultation with the political level and the Historic City of Caceres Consortium, the role of ULG coordinator was attributed to Ms. Amparo Fernandez. Ms. Fernandez is the Head of the Tourism Section of the City of Caceres. She has 30 years of experience in tourism within the City Council and master’s degree in Research in Social and Legal Sciences in Business and Tourism. She is currently responsible for Caceres contributions in the following networks: Group of Heritage Cities of Spain, Jewish quarter network of Spain “Sepharad ways”, Silver Route Cooperation Network and the Spanish Network of SMART Touristic Destinations.
An initial ULG meeting was organized during the LE and LP city visit. The current ULG members are: Amparo Fernandez – Municipality of Caceres, Jorge Villar - Municipality of Caceres,Jose Luis Medel - Municipality of Caceres , Rebeca Dominguez - Municipality of Caceres, Javier Seller – Historic City of Caceres consortium,
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Raquel Burdalo – Caceres Deputation, Jose Luis Coca – Dean of the business, finances and tourism faculty (University of Extremadura), Victoria Bazaga – AEXTUR, Guillermo Anton – Barceló Hotel director, Jose Menguiano – Parador director, Juan Torres – Don Manuel Hotel director and Juanma Honrado – AVV Association of neighbours of monumental city President. Next ULG meeting is scheduled at the kick-off of phase II.
2.2.4 City profile: Druskininkai (Lithuania)
Druskininkai is a modern unique Lithuanian resort city which successfully combines its century old treatment traditions with modern methods and advanced technologies, providing highest quality wellness, tourism, sports and recreation services. Attractive tourism infrastructure, well-developed and efficient mineral water, mud and climate therapies, highest quality spa and wellness services, thematic aqua park, and the only indoor skiing centre in Europe rank Druskininkai among the best European resorts. As a resort city, tourism is the most significant sector of the local economy.
Being one of the largest resorts in Lithuania, Druskininkai has the largest number of accommodation establishments (139 establishments in 2018), including 36 hotels and guesthouses, 4 sanatoriums and rehabilitation centers). The number of tourists staying in accommodation establishments has increased from 203 062 tourists to 336712 tourists (65.8 percent) during 2010-2018, adding pressure to the local real estate market. As a result, real estate property prices in Druskininkai municipality are now 35 to 50% higher than in other neighbouring municipalities (Alytus, Lazdijai and Varėna).
The image of Druskininkai as a safe and hospitable tourist destination has a large effect on the competitiveness of Lithuanian tourism sector and economy. Nevertheless, while analysing the situation before 2014-2020 financial period, several problems were identified: the cultural heritage was insufficiently explored and presented, public environmental awareness and engagement was limited, cultural and recreational needs of the population were not met to the desired extent. The city lacked an integrated information and marking system, suffering from underdeveloped marketing actions. Thus, it is crucial to improve the image and perception of Druskininkai as a sustainable and high-quality whole of tourism attraction sites and points of interest, increasing their attractiveness through the use of ICR to better inform tourists on tourism opportunities.
Therefore, the challenges of the city are related to the improvements of the tourism governance at the municipal level through the involvement of local stakeholders. Consequently, the role of the marketing strategies (and social media networks) well developed are crucial to achieve more sustainable outcomes in terms of tourist impacts. Thus, better positioning Druskininkai resort, reinforcing the communication dimension in urban management and cooperating with local stakeholders will help the city in co-delivering the most suitable strategic communication improving, at the same time, the co-ordination based on voluntary co-operation and partnership between authorities, businesses and the society.
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Key facts
Partner resources and IAP
Druskininkai wants to continue to support the growth of tourism, as it is the bread and butter of the local economy. However, the city realizes that in order to create more added value locally (by diversifying the tourists profile from more European countries, decreasing seasonal difference in tourism flows etc.) it needs to consider a sustainable model of growth. This model should better integrate a common vision from city stakeholders and, consequently, more collaborative actions and a commitment to a new brand and updated city image. This is why, Druskininkai has committed substantial local resources for TFC and has also been the partner city with the most engaged ULG group in transnational meetings so far. a. Political support: The project was presented to and approved by the City Council on 28.05.2019. Mayor Ričardas Malinauskas and the Vice Mayor Linas Urmanavičius are directly involved in its development. The Mayor is a chairperson of Druskininkai Tourism Board and the president of Lithuanian Resort Association. The project was presented to the members of Druskininkai Tourism Board on 07.11.2019. The feedback from the members on identifying the challenges for the city was received. The mayor participated in the meeting during the TFC city visit in Druskininkai. The topic of the project was mentioned in the presentation of the mayor in the conference organized in Druskininkai 10.02.2020 by Lithuanian Resort Association. The vice mayor and the chairperson of Economy and Resort Development Committee of the City Council Modestas Vitkauskas are included into TFC ULG. They are directly involved in project realisation and decision making processes. Both participated in TFC partner meeting in Braga. b. Networks: The TFC network outputs will be disseminated among the members of the Association of Local Authorities in Lithuania (uniting 60 municipalities from Lithuania), the Lithuanian Association of Resorts, uniting 9 resorts
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or resort areas in Lithuania, International cooperation network “Nemunas Euroregion”, (uniting 13 municipalities from Lithuania, 2 from Poland, 1 county from Belarus and 5 from Russia). c. Previous experience and tentative resources for financing the IAP Current strategic directions on tourism for the city were determined by the Development Strategy of Alytus Region 2014-2020, the Strategic Development Plan of Druskininkai Municipality 2014-2020 and the Tourism Marketing Strategy of Druskininkai Municipality 2015-2020, most of them focusing on expanding and modernizing the existent city and touristic infrastructure, with core capital investments being programmed. This is why, the focus of the IAP will be complementary to these hard investments, aiming for an updated branding and an increased capacity of co-creating with key stakeholders a common vision on the future of tourism sector, as a key local economic sector. The IAP strategic directions will have several sources of funding: the EU 2021 – 2027 funds the, 2014-2020 European Neighbourhood Instrument Cross-border Cooperation Programme Latvia-Lithuania-Belarus, The Interreg V-A Lithuania-Poland cooperation programme Cross-border Cooperation programme and analogical programmes for 2021-2027 and other. Also, Druskininkai, although a new city to URBACT programme, has strong experience in project management of EU funds and transnational projects. Some examples of this experience include: in 2015 the 'Ecological Transport Uniting Neighbours' (European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI), in 2017 the promotion of sustainable development by strengthening the public sector‘s social cluster financed through the 2009–2014 Norway‘s financial mechanism program and the “Enhancing the Access to Social Services across the Border” (2014-2020 European Neighbourhood Instrument Cross-border Cooperation Latvia-Lithuania-Belarus Programme). d. Contributing knowledge to the network The interactive marketplace exercise conducted by the network rendered these core experiences that Druskininkai can actively contribute to TFC and especially to the thematic knowledge clusters explained in section 3.
Experience with The city has managed in 20 years a complete regeneration of the once derelict spa- strong based economy, with modern spa and wellness, as well as winter sports facilities. The investment in prioritisation of funding and investments has always taken into account not only local good quality of residents needs, but potential future resident needs. Residents are free to use the well- life designed public infrastructure and have special discounts to a large variety of facilities. Children from secondary schools have free skiing lessons in winter entertainment complex “Snow arena”, swimming activities in the Aqua park, a strong program on elderly wellbeing and significant investment in education, green spaces and hobby/ crafts centres.
The URBACT Local Group (ULG)
Druskininkai is a small city, with a limited number of stakeholders. It is common that one person has various roles in different entities. In order to familiarize the local stakeholders with the URBACT methodology and ULG approach, the project manager sent invitations to a list of 10 key local stakeholders to join a roundtable discussion. After this initial discussion, a first initial ULG meeting was organized during the LE and LP city visit. Following this, confirmation on involvement was received from most of the attending stakeholders. Moreover, most of the ULG members also participated to the final phase I meeting on Braga. Next meeting is programmed at the kick-off of phase II.
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Currently Druskininkai ULG has 8 members: Linas Urmanavičius, Deputy mayor of Druskininkai municipality, responsible for tourism and culture; Violeta Grigorienė, Deputy director of the administration, responsible for social issues; Vaiva Žagunienė, Head of Tourism, Communication and Culture Department; Antanas Urbonas, Chief specialist for Culture and Tourism, Tourism, Communication and Culture Department; Alvydas Varanis, Head of Druskininkai Local Action Group (LAG), the chairperson of Viečiūnai rural area of Druskininkai Municipality; Ana Kaciun, Marketing and Tourism Information Manager of Druskininkai Tourism and Business Information Centre ; Kęstutis Ramanauskas, Head of Health Resort Druskininkai; Modestas Vitkauskas, Businessman, member of Druskininkai Tourism and Resort Development Board, member of the City council, the head of Economy and Tourism Committee of the City Council, owner of guest house ‘Saka’, Board member of businessmen club ‘Druskininkų klubas’.
ULG coordinator is Ms. Vaiva Žagunienė, Head of Tourism, Communication and Culture Department. She has been chosen during the ULG meeting after the LE and LP city visit. She is responsible for tourism issues in the administration of Druskininkai municipality and coordinating the activity of the staff of Tourism, Communication and Culture Department and the efficiency of municipal organizations, which are involved in tourism. Ms. Žagunienė has extensive experience - she had previously worked in Druskininkai Tourism and Business Information Centre, later she was a chief specialist at Investment and Property Management Division at Druskininkai Municipality. Vaiva has a good relationship with businesses, municipality and local community, and she is experienced in project implementation and stakeholder engagement.
2.2.5 City profile: Dubrovnik (Croatia)
For many years the city of Dubrovnik has been a leading destination in the Mediterranean. It is known for its historical old town, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and as one of the most picturesque walled cities in the world. As in many of Europe’s most prominent tourist cities however, increasing visitor numbers have led to problems with overtourism, to the point that UNESCO warned that Dubrovnik’s world heritage status was at risk. In order to cope with the limited capacity and resources, the city launched ‘’Respect the City’’ project in 2017 to make tourism more sustainable, including limiting the number of cruise ships calling at the port and the number of visitors entering the city.
The economy in Dubrovnik gives 17% out of total GDP per capita (10.949,00 EUR) to tourism and related industries. Furthermore, City of Dubrovnik is the second wealthiest city in Croatia after capital Zagreb, but also holds country’s second largest City budget. All these economical positive trends derive mostly due to growth of tourism related activities which, on the other hand, endanger the City’s natural and cultural resources. As far as the employment goes, less 4% people are unemployed, while over 70% of population are employed in tourism and related industries. The year 2019 was a record year in terms of tourism revenue for Dubrovnik, which recorded a rise of 13 percent in arrivals and 6 percent in overnight stays in comparison to 2018.
The large increase in visitor numbers can be directly linked to changes within the travel sector; combination of low-cost flights, Airbnb’s, cruise ships, and the Game of Thrones filming location, but also the cruise tourism in particular.
From a socio-cultural perspective, tourism is affecting the living heritage of the city which resulted in the appearance of a turbulent relationship with the local community. Overcrowding of ports, streets and tourist attractions plus all the tourist’s activities which cause littering, vandalism, lack of respect towards attractions,
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rose the anti-tourist opinions within local community and forced City authorities to finally start seeking sustainable measures in addressing over-tourism.
Moreover, the overwhelming volume of visitors caused the shift of Dubrovnik’s local community, primarily due to increased living costs. People were forced to find alternative and more affordable living locations, and consequently, today there are only 1,157 residents living within the city’s historic centre, significantly less than the 5,000 inhabitants level of 1991. The local business, like small manufacturers or authentic crafts, also left the premises of the Old town, due to the significant increase in rents of the exhibiting spaces/locations where they performed their business.
It is in this context, that the city launched the aforementioned “Respect the City” project. Some of the measures implemented through the project include: introducing IT tools for managing crowds (surveillance cameras to control the number of visitors entering and leaving the city), restrictions in numbers of cruise ship tourists, reducing the number of souvenir stands number of restaurant tables and chairs, introduction of Wi- Fi and smartphone apps to inform users of crowded areas in the city, etc. However, for long term measures and bolder actions, a stronger participatory processes is needed among city stakeholders to accelerate the transition to a sustainable model of tourism.
Key facts
Partner resources and IAP
Dubrovnik’s local economy is heavily dependent on tourism, making the transition to sustainable practices and a de-growth logic hard to implement without causing serious disruption and political turmoil. This is why, the city acknowledges that only a strong and long-term engagement process of stakeholders can enable
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collective decisions on key strategic measures for transition to sustainable tourism practices. For this, several key resources have been identified at local level:
a. Political support: Mayor Mr. Mato Frankovic, and his deputy Mrs. Jelka Tepsic, since being elected and appointed in 2017, have championed the thematic direction of TFC network, orienting Dubrovnik towards sustainable development of tourism. This is why, there is strong alignment and commitment for the work that will be carried in the TFC. Deputy Mayor Jelka Tepsic has actively participated to the entire programme of the city visit conducted by the LE and LP, and has given a presentation on the vision and challenges of the city related to tourism in the ULG session organized during the city visit. b. Networks: Several networks will be used for disseminating and capitalising of the TFC outputs: EURADA – European association of development agencies, ECTN– European Cultural Tourism Network, EIP - European Innovation Partnership Network, OASC -Open and Agile Smart Cities and the Croatian Association of the cities.
c. Previous experience and tentative resources for financing the IAP
The strategic document currently in act is the Strategy for Tourism Development and Cruising Tourism Regulations – I Phase (May 2018). 2020 is the exact moment where a phase II is being discussed, as well as integrating the lessons learned from the Respect the city project, and its tentative development into an action plan. Thus, the focus of the IAP will be to offer a participatory process for aligning strategic directions with priority action areas, and the TFC IAP will effectively support the future city strategy for tourism (phase II). Sources of funding of the IAP will be local budget and EU 2021-2027 funds. In addition, DURA and Dubrovnik Municipality are also experienced partners in URBACT projects (TechTown (IAP), 2ndChance (IAP) and ActiveNGO (TN)), which have facilitated the creation of 3 strong ULGs locally.
d. Contributing knowledge to the network The interactive marketplace exercise conducted by the network rendered these core experiences that Dubrovnik can actively contribute to TFC and especially to the thematic knowledge clusters explained in section 3.
Experience with Previous ULG experience from URBACT/ INTERREG / IUC projects. ULG engagement Knowledge in organizing transnational meetings. Experience with challenges on how to keep high percentage (and engagement) of ULG members throughout the process.
Experience with Limited cruise access by offering unpopular times and days for anchoring. Began a measures raising awareness campaign targeting tourists on rules to adhere in order to show addressing respect for the residents, especially in the old city center. overtourism
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Experience with The City of Dubrovnik, the DURA development agency, within the measures measures projected by the 'Respect the City' project, have developed and launched an addressing application which predicts the number of visitors to the Old Town of Dubrovnik. overtourism Based on machine learning as a special branch of artificial intelligence, the application estimates the number of people in the historic Old Town and the contact zones of Dubrovnik on the selected day. The application is useful for visitors planning to visit the historic city center, but no less important, it provides accurate and timely information to citizens as well as to all local businesses in planning their daily or business activities.
The URBACT Local Group (ULG)
During phase I, DURA has conducted extensive stakeholder research and engagement in order to ensure a diverse participation of entities in the kick-off meeting for the TFC ULG. The initial ULG meeting was organized during LE and LP city visit, followed afterwards by online consultations for expression of interest from stakeholders to be part of the ULG. Next ULG meeting is planned after the approval of phase II.
The current TFC ULG group is composed by: Name of the Name and surname Position/department organization/institution City of Dubrovnik Jelka Tepšić Deputy mayor City of Dubrovnik Marko Miljanić Head of Administrative Department of Tourism, Economy and Sea City of Dubrovnik Pavo Jančić/Ana Hilje Senior advisor for cultural programmes. Administrative Dept. of Culture and Heritage City of Dubrovnik Katija Miljković Administrative Dept. for Municipal Utilities and Local Government City of Dubrovnik Zrinka Raguž Head of Administrative Department for European Union Funds Dubrovnik Caterers Nikolina Farčić Dubrovnik Caterers Association Association Representative of tourist Maro Kapović Representative of tourist agencies agencies Representative of tourist Maja Lasić Representative of tourist agencies agencies Croatian Chamber of Nikolina Trojić/Jelena Dubrovnik station Commerce Diklić Port Dubrovnik Blaž Pezo Director Port Dubrovnik Dario Barbarić Head of the department of Security, Operations and environmental Dubrovnik Tourist Board Sandra Milovčević Communications department City council Katarina Doršner City council member City council Ivana Šepa/izaslanik City council member, City tour guide Airport Dubrovnik Ivan Maslać Comercial director
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Airport Dubrovnilk Josip Paljetak Project manager Regional development Gorana Margaretić Regional development agency DUNEA agency DUNEA Art Radionica Lazareti Srdjana ili Petra NGO DEŠA Romana Tomić NGO Ana Cvjetković City of Dubrovnik Jelena Lončarić Head of Administrative Department of Urbanism, Spatial Planning and Environment Respect the City Programme Ranko Milić Consultant University of Dubrovnik Ivana Pavlić Representative of University of Dubrovnik Tourist Guides Association Maja Milovčević Representatives of Tourist Guides Dubrovnik Jelica Čučević Association Dubrovnik/ Tourist Guides Patricija Cvinar
Ms. Alisa Aliti Vlašić was appointed as ULG coordinator, after consultations within DURA, Dubrovnik Municipality and several members that are now reunited in the ULG. Until January 2020 she was working in DURA as a Senior Advisor where, among other projects, has implemented TechTown and mentored implementation of 2ndChance and ActiveNGO projects. She is a validated URBACT Lead Expert with a thematic expertise in Employment, Human Capital and Labour Mobility. She was also one of the facilitators for the “Jobs and skills in urban economics: How to support people and skills to foster economic growth and resilience” Thematic Lab in URBACT Summer University, Rotterdam, 2016., where she had an opportunity to implement different participative processes and methodologies that foster creation of integrated action plans. In September 2017. she was invited to implement a Capacity building workshop for all Croatian URBACT beneficiaries of Action Planning Networks, held in Rabac, Croatia and since this workshop proved very successful, in May 2018. she facilitated another workshop using World Café methodology to gather feedback from all Croatian APN beneficiaries on their implementation experience. She is an experienced facilitator having designed and delivered large number of workshops (from small groups up to 100 people), in transnational working context within URBACT, IUC and UDN programmes. Ms. Vlašić has actively participated to both transnational meetings of phase I and she will also be heavily involved in organizing the URBACT Summer University in 2020.
2.2.6 City profile: Dun Laoghaire (Ireland)
Dún Laoghaire Rathdown (DLR) city is a suburban coastal town in County Dublin, Ireland, about 12 km south of Dublin city centre. The population of Dún Laoghaire Rathdown is 218,000. The Dún Laoghaire Harbour is the biggest tourist attraction in Ireland with 1.2 million (walking) visitors per year. As recently as January 2018, the ownership of the Dún Laoghaire Harbour has been effectively transferred over the County Council, together with a significant public debt. Thus, DLR is now focusing on how to maximise the use of this facility in the most sustainable way and consider the impact this will have for local communities. For this, DLR is now committed to engaging all the harbour stakeholders to devise an integrated plan for the future of this facility and actively using the ULG approach and TFC network to support this process.
Also, during the last few years, DLR has become aware of its touristic potential, but also of the opportunities and weaknesses that its close proximity to Dublin poses. On the one hand, most of DLR visitors are Dublin tourists that choose DLR for a day experience. There are easy connections by metropolitan trains and buses
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to/from Dublin. DLR actually has limited accommodation capacity, so it is unlikely that the profile of day visitors will change anytime soon to overnight guests. On the other hand, tourists are attracted by Dublin as a destination, and Dún Laoghaire, also because of its spelling and pronunciation does not seem to have the power to become a stand-alone destination. This is why, the current tourism strategy focuses on the cultural and outdoor experiences that “Dublin-area” has to offer:
1. Urban Splash brand which promotes the range of water based activities, beaches and coastal towns from Booterstown to Shankill. Dlr is home to one of the oldest man made harbors in the world with 250 hectres of sea/land which is a national hub for sailing. 2. Well Worth the Climb brand which promotes the range of outdoor activities along our 43km of mountain trails with pubs/restaurants and the wealth of parks/forests/vistas. 3. Between the Lines brand which promotes the rich architectural and literary history from the mountains to the sea. The municipality has a wealth of period buildings, the 19th Century Martello towns, 5th century Dalkey Castle and is or was once homes to writers like James Joyce and Maeve Binchy.
In the same time, DLR is not only the most affluent county in Ireland, but also one of the places with the highest quality of life. This is why, this recent development path that also considers the potential of tourism for local economy needs to be carefully implemented and co-designed with local stakeholders.
Key facts
Partner resources and IAP
Having officially inherited the local asset with the strongest touristic potential, the harbour, Dún Laoghaire Rathdown (DLR) needs to find relatively fast a local model for the sustainable development of tourism. This was one of the main conclusions of the interviews and focus groups sessions conducted with political representatives and ULG members during the city visit. DLR wants to focus the development of the IAP within TFC network on capacity building of local stakeholders to innovate and experiment with new ideas for
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tourism development, as well as effectively co-design the role of harbour for the future identity and socio- economic development of the city, balancing residents, tourists and tourism industry needs. For this, several key resources have already been identified:
a. Political support: Cllr Shay Brennan - An Cathaoirleach (Mayor) is in support of the TFC project along with our CEO Philomena Poole & Director of Services Helena Cunningham. During interviews conducted by the LE and LP during the city visit they have also expressed that the local TFC work should be strongly linked to the process of redevelopment of new local development strategies- both at county level, and for the harbour area. b. Networks: DLR has two groups to disseminate tourism outputs. A tourism providers networking group meet twice a year to understand the activities of others in the network and update on all the activities of the council and other providers .The second group is a tourism steering group with key tourism providers and the Irish Tourist Board (Failte Ireland) who meet as part of the current tourism strategy. Also updates on outputs and capitalization opportunities of TFC will be distributed to: the National Tourist Board ( Failte Ireland), Dublin Bay Biosphere & the Enterprise Town Awards and the Dun Laoghaire Town Team. c. Previous experience and tentative resources for financing the IAP The development of the TFC IAP will actually integrated two local strategic processes that have just been commissioned: Dun Laoghaire Harbour & Dun Laoghaire Town are each conducting a feasibility study to consider the future development of the harbour and the town. It will complement these process with a string stakeholder engagement component and co-design capacity through consolidation of the TFC ULG, as well as encourage small scale actions as a way of testing ideas of the ULG. The main sources of funding will be the Destination Towns Funding (Failte Ireland National Funding), Participative Events Grants and the Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Events Grants Programme, as well as EU 2021-2027 funds. Also, DLR has previous URBACT experience, from Change APN and valuable knowledge of the URBACT method. d. Contributing knowledge to the network
The interactive marketplace exercise conducted by the network rendered these core experiences that Dún Laoghaire Rathdown (DLR) can actively contribute to TFC and especially to the thematic knowledge clusters explained in section 3.
Experience with The last years have seen the completion of legacy projects in the city, including a new strong local state of the art and architecture library, currently used by kids, adults and elderly investment in alike and providing free access to all, as well as increasing pedestrian space on main quality of life streets and alongside the waterfront. This measure complement an already high quality of life of the area and a strong local development vision to protect and further develop this direction. Experience with Successful new branding strategy, under the Dublin name, using the 3 branding and use routes/experiences that the area can offer. of digital tools
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The URBACT Local Group (ULG)
During phase I, DLR has focused on aligning the future IAP development process with the ongoing strategic process and identifying the key people and entities that should be in the ULG in order to make a relevant body for co-designing future integrated actions. This is why, after consultations with the political leveland colleagues from other departments, Ms. Carolyn Mc Carthy was appointed ULG coordinator.
Carolyn is part of the dlr Tourism Development Team. She has recently joined the municipality/council from the Dun Laoghaire Harbour Company. Carolyn has worked on developing cruise business over 5 years for Dun Laoghaire Harbour before joining the county council. She has worked with a variety of town and harbour stakeholders during her career. She has a keen interest in travel and has lived abroad in the the USA, New Zealand and Australia. Carolyn also attended the final phase I meeting in Braga and is now familiar with network plans for phase II.
The ULG has met once during the LE and LP city visit and has confirmed after the visit their commitment to the project. The current TFC ULG Group is composed by representatives of: Dublin Bay Biosphere, Failte Ireland (National Tourism Body), dlrcoco Team, Tourism Office Coordinators, dlr Economic Development, dlr transport & dlr Senior Architect, Dun Laoghaire Town Team , Dalkey Book Festival,Digital Dun Laoghaire , Dun Laoghaire Tidy Towns , Glastule Going Green , dlr Tourist Office, Monkstown Food Festival , Blackrock Business Association.
2.2.7 City profile: Krakow (Poland)
Krakow is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Krakow is one of 12 cities in the world listed on the first UNESCO World Heritage List in 1978. It was European Capital of Culture 2000. Krakow is among others UNESCO City of Literature, Member of UNESCO Creative Cities’ network and it is a religious destination for a lot of visitors during the year. In 2019 it was elected the European Capital of Gastronomic Culture. Also, from June 2019, Krakow presides the Organization of World Heritage Cities (OWHC).
Krakow's strategic mission is to create an intelligent metropolis, ensuring high quality of life, building creative economy, shaping the spatial environment and cultural development, through cooperation between entities from various sectors and partner-like cooperation of residents ". These vision needs to consider the serious dynamic of overtourism that the city is experiencing, as well as the importance of tourism for the local economy: for a population of almost 800 000 residents, in 2018 Krakow was visited by 13.5 million visitors who spent here EUR 1. 5 billion euros. The trend is a growth one, as already in 2019, Krakow had 14 million visitors. The consequences of this large volumes of visitors are: the gentrification of the Old Town, over- tourism in some districts of the city, increasing dissatisfaction of residents and emerging conflicts between local entrepreneurs and residents.
This is why, because of the challenges that it is now facing, Krakow wants to build tools to improve the quality of services and to support dispersion programme of cultural and touristic offers outside the city centre. Most importantly, it wants, using the TFC network process of co-designing the IAP with the support of the ULG group, to align conflicting visions of local stakeholders about the future development of tourism. Moreover, Krakow is a member of an informal group of 14 European cities under the leadership of Amsterdam, cooperating with the European Commission in the field of regulating short-term rental.
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Key facts
Partner resources and IAP
As Krakow is experiencing rising degradation of the quality of life of residents in the historic city center, the city wants to commit to finding new ways of harmonizing stakeholder vision around sustainable tourism practices. Thus, the city has identified several resources and has committed extensive time for stakeholder consultation during phase I, in order to be able to maximize the momentum that TFC network will offer, as well as the process for the IAP development.
a. Political support: TFC is strongly supported by the Deputy Mayor Anna Korfel-Jasińska. During the meeting of the Deputy Mayor with the LE and LP within the city visit, the importance of transitioning to a model of sustainable tourism was reinforced, as well as the commitment to transnational cooperation projects. Also, the TFC project is featured in local media and City Hall communications. The TFC workshops were attended by the plenipotentiery of the Mayor for culture and the management of several departments of the City Hall. b. Networks: Main networks of disseminations include: the TOURISM FORUM - The Mayor of Krakow has appointed a number of people from different backgrounds associated with tourism as members of the Tourism Forum at the Mayor of Krakow. It is a form of networking and consulting platform that meets at least twice a year. The City of Krakow cooperates on an ongoing basis with business self-governments (chambers, NGOs), including in the form of co-organization of promotional events, knowledge transfer, consulting and tourism management solutions in the city; the MALOPOLSKA REGIONAL ORGANISATION (regional DMO); and KRAKOW NETWORK - the goal of the Krakow Network is to create a strong business group from various sectors, whose activities will increase the number of business events carried out in Krakow.)
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c. Previous experience and tentative resources for financing the IAP The Municipality of Krakow has rich experience in preparation and implementation of Urbact projects as a partner. First projects under Urbact I and II have been implemented since 2004 (CHORUS, URBANITAS, SUITE). Later, USER - Changes and conflicts in using urban spaces (2013-2015) and VitalCities: Urban sports promotion for social inclusion, healthy and active living (2016-2018), URB_INCLUSION (Implementation Network) and RU:RBAN (Transfer Network).
The IAP developed until TFC will focus on co-designing actions with local stakeholders, better understanding of perceptions and testing out new monitoring tools and reward/label mechanisms that are aligned with the current strategic directions of the local strategy for tourism, current under adoption. Called "Krakow's sustainable tourism policy for 2021-2028", it’s main message is cleary summarized in the motto: "I am lucky to live where others can only come for a moment". Main sources of funding for he IAP will be local funds, as well as EU 2021-2027 funds. d. Contributing knowledge to the network The interactive marketplace exercise conducted by the network rendered these core experiences that Krakow can actively contribute to TFC and especially to the thematic knowledge clusters explained in section 3.
The city has developed special zoning and public displays laws for the historic city center area. Moreover, it has established an informal (for now) team in the city hall Experience with structure with invited local partners to coordinate tasks to oversee any city operations measures in the protected area called "cultural park". The team is chaired by the Mayor's addressing plenipotentiary for culture. The cultural park management system has also had strong overtourism enforcing mechanisms, with local policy verifying if businesses had complied. The team was formed in the fourth quarter of 2019 and meets on average once a month. Krakow has knowledge of the methodology for measuring the tourist function of the city and SCC- (social carrying capacity), i.e. the ability to accept changes under the Experience with influence of the evolving process of city gentrification and overtourism. He used both research and techniques in the strategic document "Sustainable Tourism Policy". Krakow has begun monitoring tools work on a set of sustainable tourism indicators in cities, which may be the subject of further work by TFC
Experience with Krakow has knowledge of the principles of creating quality label systems in tourism branding and use and is interested in further work on creating sustainable tourism under the working of digital tools name sustainable Tourism Quality.
The URBACT Local Group (ULG)
During phase I, Krakow conducted an extensive process for ULG creation and engagement: (1) obtaining the approval of persons and the institutions they represent for participation in the work of ULG (August 2019), (2)meeting of ULG participants aimed at acquiring knowledge and opinions on further development directions by completing matrix surveys, (3) collecting behavioural profiles of various groups visiting Krakow made by members of the Association of City Guides (October 2019 by correspondence),(4) four thematic
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meetings (8.10.19, 22.10.19, 7.11.19, 27.11.19) with local tour operators dedicated to: the selection of strategic markets to promote the city, the principles of commercialization of the local offer, barriers to the development of tourism, proposition of promotional activities in 2020, (5) ULG plenary meeting with TFC LE and LP leaders visiting Krakow (12.11.19), (6) thematic meeting of TFC with LE and LP with members of the Krakow Chamber of Tourism (12.11.19) about barriers from the development of reception tourism from the point of view of a travel agency, (7)- plenary seminar (4-5.12.19) with ULG participants dedicated to the city's tasks in tourism development in 2020. Analysis of effects and diagnosis of the state of tourism in the city in 2019. Presentation of assumptions for a new strategic document called "sustainable tourism policy in the years 2021-2028.
Current ULG members for TFC network are:
- Piotr Laskowski, President of Krakow Chamber of Tourism - Paweł Mierniczak – Director of Malopolska Regional Organisation - Jacek Legendziewicz Vice President of Gremium - a Regional Chamber of Hoteliers - Prof. Jadwiga Berbeka- University of Economics, specialist of meeting industry - Robert Pawlusiński Ph.D, Jagiellonian University, specialist of night industry - Prof Zygmunt Kruczek, University of Physical Education, specialist of geography and overtourism - Wojciech Blecharczyk, President, Chamber of Commerce RH PLUS - NGO grouping the catering sector - Paula Fanderowska, Kraków Network - around 100 entities representing the beneficiaries and stakeholders of the business tourism sector - Anna Jędrocha- local professional congress organizer (PCO) – :President of Symposium Cracoviense - Elżbieta Kusina, President, Federation of Kraków Tourist Guide Associations - Małgorzata Przygórska-Skowron, chief of Cracow Convention Bureau - Witold Matwijów, network Forum of Hotel’s Director’s - Krzysztof Jędrocha – hospitality industry expert - Marek Grochowicz - residents' informal movement in the Kazimierz District - Alina Kamińska - councilor of Kraków - a resident of the Old Town district - Paweł Galiak - Balice Krakow Airport - Robert Piaskowski – Plenipotentiary of Mayor of Krakow form Culture - Tomasz Przybyło, Department of Heritage, Municipality of Krakow
The ULG Coordinator is Mr. Bartłomiej Walas, Ph.D. He has been the one that has designed the extensive stakeholder engagement process in phase I and has also actively attended both transnational TFC meetings. He was chosen after consulations between he project manager, political level and various entities that are now part of the ULG. He is a apecialist in tourism policy and tourism marketing. Speaker and market analyst. Doctor of science, he also completed postgraduate studies at the Institute of Tourist Studies - IREST at the Sorbonne. Currently Dean of the Faculty of Tourism and Recreation at the University College of Tourism and Ecology in Sucha Beskidzka and coordinator of strategic projects at the Department of Tourism of the City of Krakow. In the years 1996-2008 he was the director of the branch office of Polish Tourist Organisation in Paris and in the years 2008-2017 the vice-president of the Polish Tourist Organization, responsible for marketing strategy on foreign markets. He is the author, among others, of Poland's marketing strategy in the sphere of tourism for the years 2008-2011 and the years 2012-2020, the brand strategy of the Polish Prestige Hotels & Resorts, diagnosis of tourism in Warsaw, policy of sustainable tourism in Krakow. Author of manuals, scientific articles and numerous analyzes of the tourist market. As the vice-president of the Polish Tourist Organization he co-managed the project with EU funds for the period 2007-2013 worth EUR 75 million. He
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has many years of experience and relationships in the problems and activities of local stakeholders, among others, by the fact that he was the Vice-President of the Krakow Chamber of Tourism (currently an honorary member of the Chamber) and currently a member of the Council of the Chamber of the Polish Hotel Industry. The coordinator function was approved by ULG members.
2.2.8 City profile: Rovaniemi (Finland)
Rovaniemi, with about 63 000 inhabitants, is the capital of the Finnish Lapland and the Official Hometown of Santa Claus®. Tourism plays an important economical role and impacts on the quality of services that benefit also the local residents. The main attraction is the Santa Claus Village on the Arctic Circle (which now is affected by climate change, given warming trends) and it receives almost a million visitors mainly from abroad annually. The average growth during the past years has been more than 10 %. Growth has come especially from Asia. Winter is the tourism high season with growing demand for new investments in accessibility and accommodation. Winter season covers 72 % of all tourism. Main local challenges are related to the management of impacts created by fast growing tourism and significant seasonal differences. High seasonal differences in tourism create challenges in getting skilled workforce and tourism may not be felt as attractive business area for employees.
The gap, in 2019 of around 40% difference, between winter and summer tourism is a challenge for developing sustainable tourism. There is a need for more accommodation and services in winter time, but these services need to be profitable also in summertime. Because of this strong pressure, peer-to-peer accommodation has increased significantly, with 400 (low season) to 900 (high season) Airbnb apartments or houses. Effects for the housing market in the city ae still not thoroughly documented, but there is an emerging trend of rising prices for rents and homes available to residents.
Successful winter season attracts companies to operate in Rovaniemi only during the high season and most of the companies come either from some other part of Finland or abroad. This has significant effect for the local fiscal basis, as few such seasonal companies are registered in Rovaniemi, leaving the city unable to collect taxes to many of the users of its municipal services. Moreover, due to current Finnish legislation, the city cannot impose any kind of local tax. Consequently, Rovaniemi does not have any mechanism in use that could extract added value for the municipal budget from tourism. In turn, it has to provide a series of services to residents and tourist alike, especially in order to keep them safe from the Arctic climate (use of local hospitals, accessibility of winter roads, forest paths etc.).
Also, the commitment of these companies to sustainable development is many times weaker than those who operate all year round. Seasonality also challenges the quality of services, since there is a huge demand for workforce in wintertime and many of the employees are not from Rovaniemi and they don’t necessarily know how to operate in Arctic winter conditions and they may not be aware of the local traditions and regulations. This can cause difficult situations between the locals and employers. Due to this fact, the main strategic focus in the future for the city will be on how to develop tourism that is focused on the summer season. At the same time, the city needs to tackle the challenges of fast growing winter tourism and ensure the quality and sustainability of tourism products. During all consultations and work conducted in phase I, it
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has become evident that the city is also struggling with the multi-level governance of the tourism portfolio and fiscal implications for the city and tourism industry.
Key facts
Partner resources and IAP
Rovaniemi has already made strong commitments and has delivered city-wide transformations for environmental protection and good quality of life. As the city realizes that seasonality and its governance system is posing significant challenges to sustaining measures for sustainable tourism, it wants to make use of the TFC network experience and the IAP development to co-design with city stakeholders a new governance model that can enable sustainable transformations to take place in how tourisms, tourism industry and residents jointly share common assets. For this, the city has committed several resources:
a. Political support: Taking part in the TFC project was approved in Rovaniemi Business Committee that consists of leading politicians from the City Board and Mayor. The chair of the committee is the Chair of Rovaniemi City Board. The Mayor participated to the ULG meeting organized during the LE city visit and has reinforced the city’s commitment for the sustainable tourism portfolio. b. Networks: Main dissemination network for TFC outputs will include: World Winter Cities Association for Mayors, Arctic Mayors’ Forum.
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c. Previous experience and tentative resources for financing the IAP The local development strategy of Rovaniemi 2025 recognizes of the importance of tourism to Rovaniemi. In the strategy the City of Rovaniemi has listed strategical choices for development from the point of view of city planning. The main areas are the Arctic Circle, Ounasvaara recreational center, city center and Kemijoki river bank area. All those areas are just as important for local residents, as they are for attracting tourists. The IAP developed under TFC will complement this urban planning focus, specifically focusing on co-designing processes of a new governance structure that can support both needs of city residents and tourists and tourism industry and address the challenges identified above. The action plan of the IAP will be financed through local funds, as well as EU 2021-2027 funds. Rovaniemi has significant experience in transnational projects, currently implementing the Interreg funded project on: export Cooperation Finland-Sweden and Digi ACE; digitalization as a driving force in the ACE- industry; and BuSK – Building Shared Knowledge project (funded by Northern Periphery and Arctic Program and finalized in 2019). Rovaniemi has become familiar with the URBACT methiod during phase I and the ULG approach is seen as a crucial element as an added value of the TFC network for the local level.
d. Contributing knowledge to the network
The interactive marketplace exercise conducted by the network rendered these core experiences that Rovaniemi can actively contribute to TFC and especially to the thematic knowledge clusters explained in section 3.
Experience with Visit Rovaniemi is the marketing name for Rovaniemi Tourism and Marketing Ltd that stakeholder is owned by the City of Rovaniemi and more than 200 tourism related service engagement companies. Visit Rovaniemi is a destination marketing organisation that has successfully managed to integrate all major tourism industry stakeholders and mobilize them towards actions related to environmental protection. Experience with Through its Tourism ABC platform, Rovaniemi has compiled for the first time all strong regulations (local and national) that a business operator needs to adhere to in order to investment in conduct an environmentally sustainable business, protect the fragile Arctic ecoysystem environmental and ensure tourists safety. The tool has received strong positive feedback from the protection and industry, as well as a renewed pressure from business from further support from public good quality of authorities or other stakeholders to comply with the rules. life Experience with City of Rovaniemi has registered worldwide the trademark “Official Hometown of branding and Santa Claus®. Branding has been so successful that City of Rovaniemi and Visit digital tools Rovaniemi received The Internationalisation Award of the President of the Republic of Finland in 2016. This was the first time the award was given to a municipality and in the field of tourism.
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The URBACT Local Group (ULG)
City of Rovaniemi discussed with potential ULG members while considering to take part in Tourism Friendly Cities –project. A smaller group met twice before the official starting date of the projects and the dates were 5.2.2019 and 4.4.2019. During the phase I of the TFC the ULG had 4 meetings (2.10.2019, 14.11.2020, 8.1.2020, 25.2.2020) and 1,5 day workshop together with the lead expert between 20.-21.11.2019.
Current ULG members are:
Mr. Erkki Lehtoniemi, City of Rovaniemi - Director of Environmental Department Ms. Hanna Liisanantti, City of Rovaniemi - Specialist of Waste Management Ms. Maria Hakkarainen, University of Lapland - Researcher, Tourism Institute Ms. Minni Haanpää, University of Lapland - University Lecturer, Tourism Institute Ms. Eija Raasakka, Lapland University of Applied Sciences, Project Manager Ms. Pirjo Pääkkönen, Santapark Ltd, Project Manager Mr. Antti Antikainen, Safartica Lts, Sales Director Mr. Antti Nikander, Santa Claus Village, Development Manager Ms. Sanna Kärkkäinen, Visit Rovaniemi, Managing Director Ms. Tuula Rintala-Gardin, City of Rovaniemi, Director of International Relations
The role of NGOs in Rovaniemi and generally in Finland in not as strong as it is in some other European countries. This is why the ULG does not gather many NGOs, but rather business associations and universities, that also have a strong commitment for community development.
The ULG coordinator is Ms. Tuula Rintala-Gardin, Director of International Relations of the City of Rovaniemi. Ms. Rintala-Gardin has long experience regarding tourism in Rovaniemi. Her previous job was the Director of Tourism, a post she held for 18 years. She was on a leave of absence for the period of three years during which she held the post of Managing Director of Lapland Centre of Expertise for the Experience industry. She has been a board member in different regional tourism marketing and development companies. Since 1994 Ms. Rintala-Gardin has been a project manager to various EU-projects that were funded by EU structural funds. In addition, she has worked in many Interreg –projects and been Finland’s representative in EU commission’s working group Tourism and Employment during the years 2000-2001. Ms. Rintala-Gardin has actively contributed to both transnational meetings of TFC and has been appointed unanimously by all ULG members.
2.2.9 City profile: Utrecht (The Netherderlands)
Utrecht is a city located in the Netherlands with 350.000 inhabitants in 2018, growing to 450.000 in 2040. This growth of the city will be mostly realized within the city’s boundaries. At the same time the number of visitors to Utrecht is increasing. Both the larger number of inhabitants and the growing number of visitors puts pressure on the use of public space. The historic inner-city of Utrecht is unique and compact. The challenge for the coming years is to develop the inner-city considering the right balance between living environment, touristic quality and room for economic activity, events and entrepreneurs. Thus, Utrecht’s challenge is to make the tourism sector and the visitor management strategy more sustainable creating positive impacts on the residents from the tourism activities. That is why Utrecht Municipality is facing the challenge to manage the tourism sector focussing on visitors that don’t interfere the local community in a
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negative way. An absolute bonus would be that the inhabitants feel the benefits of tourism with a different mind-set.
In 2015 the municipality launched the plan ‘Live like a local – Perspective Tourism 2020’. With this plan the municipality choose not to aim for mass-tourism, but on tourism that fits the character of the city. And so creating the right balance between livelihood and liveability. Utrecht has already done a research for the optimal touristic situation for the city, namely the perfect mix of tourists and the optimal number of tourists, detailing also insights into tourist profiles. Utrecht combines since 2017 successfully culture and tourism, starting with touristic campaigns such “100 years De Stijl”. At regional level Utrecht works together with the province and surrounding municipalities to spread the international visitors in time and space and facilitate them by good transport and multi-lingual information. At the moment, the Municipality is focussing on spreading tourists of the city and region, which will contribute to sustain the tourism sector in a positive and sustainable way. Moreover, in 2019, Utrecht issued a ban on granting new construction permits for hotels, until the city reaches a consensus on its vision of tourism. These measures have been taken also in the context of the national rebranding process the Netherlands is undertaking and the hard lessons learned from the overtourism state of Amsterdam. Thus, with mixed attitudes towards tourism, Utrecht will focus within TFC on co-developing with city stakeholders a vision for tourism as integrated part of the local development strategy in order to increase length of visits and interaction between city residents, tourists and tourism industry and differentiation from the overtourism phenomenon of Amsterdam.
Key facts
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Partner resources and IAP
a. Political support: TFC is aligned with the strategic directions of the city. The City Councilor is Mr. Klaas Verschuure, his policies are (among other things) economic, business and urban development and circular economy. He has been informed about Utrecht’s engagement in the TFC network and is in support of the work that Utrecht Municipality will embark on. b. Networks: Some key networks where TFC outputs will be disseminated are: Who Cities network, G4 Touristic network (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague & Utrecht), Utrecht Region Network and the Central Government Advisory Board for the Living Environment and Infrastructure ‘Waardevol Toerisme’ (Valuable Tourism).
c. Previous experience and tentative resources for financing the IAP Utrecht has strong URBACT experience. In the previous URBACT-period Utrecht has been Lead Partner of the CityLogo project. In the current period the City of Utrecht is not only participating in TFC, but is also Lead Partner of the URGE-project which is focusing on Circular Building Cities. Also, the IAP developed under TFC will complement the existing tourism strategy “Live like a local” in order to strongly focus on using the URBACT method to bring a diverse array of stakeholders in the decision-making arena and manage a co-development process of a balanced strategy for tourism. Also, the IAP development and TFC ULG work will be supported by an initiative for designing an online participation process about tourism development in the city, that we can use as interactive policy making. Funding for the IAP developed actions will be EU 2021-2027 funds, as well as regional and local ones. d. Contributing knowledge to the network
The interactive marketplace exercise conducted by the network rendered these core experiences that Utrecht can actively contribute to TFC and especially to the thematic knowledge clusters explained in section 3.
Experience with In 2019, Utrecht experimented with a few preventions policy measures until the city measures can decide on their vision on tourism. The measures include a temporary ban on addressing issuing new planning permits for regular hotel, as well as a limit of days for renting overtourism out an Airbnb apartment. It’s still possible to start a hotel in Utrecht, but it has to be a special concept one (with sustainable aspects).
Experience with Tourists perception survey, used at regional level. In cooperation with DMO Utrecht research, Marketing, Utrecht commissioned the Katholieke University Leuven in 2017 to monitoring and conduct a study into the scale and impact of tourism in the city ("Tourism in Utrecht evaluation tools towards a sustainable future", Appendix 1). At the same time, Utrecht started a Tourist Visitor Survey in the same period researching visitor scope of trips, origins and experiences as tourist/visitors to the city.
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Experience with Utrecht Marketing is the local Destination Management Organisation. hybrid Also, Utrecht Marketing is working on an innovative visitor segmentation study into governance the origin and characteristics of the national visitors to Utrecht. The rationale is models described by the DMO as: “the more we, as a city, know about the national visitor, the better we can find, fascinate, activate and engage them”. Experience with Supporting the new national efforts of rebranding the country and using digital tools branding and use to create "mental metro lines" that can be taken in order to visit all of the country, of digital tools and not solely Amsterdam.
Five priorities are central for achieving this ambition: - Benefits and burdens are in balance, more benefits from tourism than burdens; -All of the Netherlands is attractive: put more cities and regions on the map as attractive destinations; -Accessible and achievable: easily accessible cities and regions; -Sustainability is a must: a living environment with less waste and pollution; -A hospitable sector: the Netherlands as a welcoming destination.
The URBACT Local Group (ULG)
During phase I, the project coordinator focused on bringing together main stakeholders for tourism. During the city visit the LE met with all of them, either in group meetings and interviews.
The current ULG is composed by: Municipality of Utrecht: • Wilbert Kalfsvel, Advisor in field of Tourism and Hotels & Other Stays • Ella Derksen, Advisor in the field of Tourism DMO Utrecht Markting: • Joost de Vries, project leader Marketing Intelligence, Utrecht Marketing. https://www.utrechtmarketing.nl/ • Marianne Groen, Coordinator marketing region, Utrecht Marketing, https://www.visitutrechtregion.com University of Utrecht • Dr. Egbert van der Zee, areas of expertise: Tourism development and planning & sustainable urban development Utrecht cooperating hotels • Henk Hulscher, Chairman Utrecht Hotels (HOST) The discussion in the ULG in a meeting organized after the LE city visit, have already prompted a tentative list of profiles and roles that need to still be found, in order to have a rich ULG composition and achieve the ambitious goals set up: • Specialists in Utrecht heritage • Experts on sustainability, the global goals. We will examine who of their board or program team would fit into the ULG. https://www.utrecht4globalgoals.nl/ • An Utrecht Influencer on social media. There are a number of well known ‘influencers' active in the (social) media in Utrecht who determine the public debate. By involving these influencers, we let them think along and we use them to spread the message.
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• Young people who make the magazine De Dakhaas www.dedakhaas.nl, an independent magazine about Utrecht. The most talented journalists, photographers, illustrators and designers in the city follow their own fascinations and report in their own unique way. Three times a year this results in a real paper magazine that should be on the coffee table (or the toilet) with every straightforward Utrechter • Art Platform https://.artutrecht.com Visual art is an enrichment and contributes to the development, imagination, zest for life and creativity of a happy city. With this conviction, Art Utrecht was established in early 2015. At the base are a few gallery owners, artists and directors of non-profit art institutions who want to contribute to this happy city.
The ULG coordinator is Ms. Ella Derksen. She is advisor in the field of tourism for the Economy Department of the Utrecht Municipality. In addition, she is the project manager of a Light Art Route in the city and she coordinates art projects in the public space for the Utrecht Culture Department. Ms. Ella Derksen (1961) has done several studies. Started as a 1st degree teacher, followed by an Academy of Arts (Utrecht School of the Arts). Later she did a study in Policy and Management (Utrecht University). She attended training courses in practical philosophy (International School of Philosophy) and Personal Leadership. In previous professional roles, she was director of De Verbeelding, a museum for Art, Landscape and Nature in Zeewolde, she was deputy director for the Center for Visual Arts Utrecht. As an independent entrepreneur, she advises museums, governments and companies on projects and exhibitions in the field of visual arts. Some examples: Art Concept for the North-South Metro line in Amsterdam, the Stijl Cycle Route with 10 sculptures between Utrecht and Amersfoort, and an art project in relation to Future Religious Heritage for the Dutch Council for Cultural Heritage. Ella had an active contribution during the final TFC transnational meeting in Braga, on top of the meetings he had with the LE and ULG members during the city visit.
2.2.10 City profile: Venice (Italy)
The site ‘Venice and its Lagoon’ has been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1987 in UNESCO’s World Heritage List for the unique and singular nature of its cultural wealth, consisting of its historical, archaeological, urban, architectural and artistic heritage and of exceptional traditions, integrated into an environmental, natural and landscape context that is unique in the world. The Venice Lagoon, one of the oldest and most complex examples of the relationships between human activities and the forces of nature, stratified in centuries of history. It is precisely this exceptional historical identity that has transformed Venice into one of the international capitals of tourism.
The City of Venice, with its 260 520 inhabitants, experience around 28 million tourists and visitors per year. A large proportion of tourists are actually day tourists from cruise ships. Although Venice is well aware that the tourist phenomenon has completely exploded in terms of mass tourism and day-tripper tourism, calling for a renewed integrated strategy for the management of such a complex resource, it faces significant multi- governance challenges. The port (touristic and industrial) is not under the jurisdiction of Venice Municipality, and measures targeting limiting the number of cruise ships docking or changing the anchoring point for ships to support dispersion measures in the historical city centre could not be implemented. The Venetian Mainland, on the other hand, presents all the critical situations connected to a great Italian city, accentuated in the last years by an important industrial crisis which has accelerated the long decline in productivity in the industrial hub of Porto Maghera.
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Tourism in Venice is one of main economic resources and it represents an incessant source of cultural exchange, an opportunity for economic growth and an important social resource for the development of the community. Thus, the City’s goal is to invest and to promote sustainable tourism in order to valorise Venice authenticity and uniqueness and to share it with the world as a World Heritage Site.
Through #EnjoyRespectVenezia the City of Venice launched an awareness campaign during the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development 2017, raising awareness of tourist impact, with the belief that responsible travelling can contribute to sustainable development. In addition, the Tourist Report provides the daily estimate of visitors to Venice in order to enable a more satisfying and sustainable trip of the City for tourists.
Also, from 2016, in the process of laying down the actions towards a sustainable tourism, the City of Venice held close meetings with the citizens, trade associations and economic and cultural groups, to identify a strategy with the greatest possible consensus on regulating and managing the tourist flows. These meetings took place in the institutional seat of the relevant Council Committees responsible for matters of tourism, culture, commerce, productive activities and mobility (IV, VI, VIII and IX committees). During these meetings, citizens, trade associations, formal and informal groups, and businesses were invited to put forward proposals and solutions to the tourist pressure on the city. From the month of September 2016, in 18 sittings of the Council Committees, transmitted in streaming to facilitate the sharing of the contents, 23 projects were presented. Each project proponent was asked to provide a project sheet containing regulatory terms, areas of action, economic framework, and a time-frame for implementation. On these bases, the 2017-2021 “Project of Territorial Governance of Tourism in Venice” was then built. Thus, the City of Venice, through the TFC network wants to build the IAP focusing on the measures to be further planned and implemented in connection to and in synergy with the Territorial Governance of Tourism pan, effectively using the ULG approach to co-design measures with residents, tourism industry and tourists.
Key facts
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Partner resources and IAP
Venice has invested significant resources for developing its Project of Territorial Governance of Tourism plan. The plan was developed with strong stakeholder engagement, but this process needs to continue throughout implementation. Currently the plan does not have an effective stakeholder engagement process or governance structure. Consequently, Venice has identified several key resources for building an enabling environment for the TFC ULG group and IAP development process to fill in this gap. a. Political support: The deputy mayor for Tourism Paola Mar is leading the city’s policies on this topic and is involved directly in the project. She is supported by the Tourism Sector with one manager and 9 employees dedicated to the governance of tourism and to sustainable tourism. She is strongly supporting the TFC project, as she highlighted during the LE and LP city visit. b. Networks: Main networks for disseminating TFC outputs will include:
Rete delle città delle Grandi Destinazioni Italiane del TurismoSostenibile (Roma Capitale, Milano, Venezia, Firenze e Napoli) – Network of major Italian sustainable tourism destinations (Rome, Milan, Venice, Florence and Naples): Memorandum of Understanding signed by these cities in 2017 for the constitution of a national network with the involvement of the Italian Ministry of Culture to develop and realise shared actions to improve sustainability of tourism policies, ease the exchange of best practices, develop good practices for the involvement of stakeholders from the territories, identify effective strategies to safeguard art destinations from excessive tourist flows.
Eurocities: network of major European cities and brings together the local governments of over 140 of Europe's largest cities and over 45 partner cities, that between them govern 130 million citizens across 39 countries. Through six thematic forums, a wide range of working groups, projects, activities and events, it offers members a platform for sharing knowledge and exchanging ideas and influences and works with the EU institutions to respond to common issues that affect the day-to-day lives of Europeans.
CEMR - Council of European Municipalities and Regions: European association of local and regional governments that brings together the national associations of local and regional governments from 41 European countries and represents, through them, all levels of territories – local, intermediate and regional. Since its creation in 1951, CEMR promotes the construction of a united, peaceful and democratic Europe founded on local self-government, respect for the principle of subsidiarity and the participation of citizens. CEMR is also the European section of the world organisation United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG). c. Previous experience and tentative resources for financing the IAP
The current strategy on tourism for the City of Venice is outlined in the “Project of Territorial Governance of Tourism in Venice” approved in 2017. The project identified 52 actions to be implemented grouped in 4 main focus axes: managing the resource, protecting residents, balancing the extra costs to enhance the valorisation and development of the city and innovate on communications and marketing (educate towards responsible and stainable tourism). The IAP will effectively support the implementation of the current
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strategy, developing tools for co-implementations of the strategic directions, and also detailing actions in support of current directions. Funding of the IAP will come from local funds, as well as EU 2021-2027 funds.
Also, the IAP will integrate the experience that is now being built from two other EU-funded projects in the field of tourism that Venice is implementing: S.L.I.D.E.S. - Smart strategies for sustainable tourism in LIvely cultural DEStinations: funded by the Interreg Italy-Croatia Programme, the project aims at fostering cross border cooperation among cultural destinations in the Programme area and the joint planning of smart strategies to support more sustainable and balanced territorial development through the promotion of tangible and intangible cultural heritage, in particular those assets shaping the identity of the destinations. Slow Food-CE: funded by the Interreg Central Europe Programme, the project aims at improving the capacities of local actors to valorise the intangible heritage of food in line with a vision of integrated economic, environmental and social sustainability. The project connects public and private actors from five central European cities to promote the ‘new gastronomy of slow food’ concept.
Moreover, the City of Venice has participated in URBACT projects in previous programming period, where Local Support Groups were set up and embedded in project activities (e.g. MILE project -URBACT II). In more recent years, within other EU-funded projects, several groups of stakeholders were built and significant work was carried out locally with their involvement. In the field of tourism, it is worth to mention the Local Working Group of the project Slow Food-CE which involves several organizations (public and private) working on tourism-related policies and services and with whom in the last three years an important work on the protection and enhancement of the food heritage has been carried out.
d. Contributing knowledge to the network The interactive marketplace exercise conducted by the network rendered these core experiences that Venice can actively contribute to TFC and especially to the thematic knowledge clusters explained in section 3.
Experience with Venice has actively experimented with several waste management systems in order strong investment to ensure that the large volumes of tourists can adhere to recycling rules. One of the in environmental measures that has proven most effective so far is to make waste bin scarce in the old policies city center and inform tourists through the EnjoyRespectVenezia campaign that waste disposal would be only done at restaurants or hotels. Experience with Developed one of the most internationally famous awareness campaigns targeting measures tourists on rules to observe for not disrupting city life especially in the city center addressing #EnjoyRespectVenezia. Worked alongside key stakeholders from the tourism overtourism industry (e.g. VISA) to popularise the campaign and raise additional funds for the marketing budget needed for the campaign. Several dispersion programmes are currently under development using some of the lesson learned from the campaign. Experience with Since January 2020, the experimental installation of a network of pedestrian flow research, detection sensors has been launched at 34 sites that fall along the main intercept of monitoring and pedestrian flows in Venice. With the acquisition of real-time data, and subsequent evaluation tools analysis, it is intended to have predictive models of influx in certain areas of the City for the purpose of effective territorial management of flows, as well as to guarantee greater protection of the City. The data, when the system is tested and enters into
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operation, will be acquired by the Smart Control Room. To date, there are 30 active detection stations.
Experience with The School Award "Good Practices start at School" was established for the year stakeholder 2020, addressed to first and second grade secondary schools of the territory of the engagement City of Venice. In order to strengthen the effectiveness of the #EnjoyRespectVenezia campaign and to encourage the education and awareness of young people on the issue of sustainable tourism, the City of Venice considers it appropriate to involve also schools in the dissemination of the campaign #EnjoyRespectVenezia, in order to stimulate students both to play an active citizenship role for the protection of the decorum and conservation of their city, and, once trained, to become trainers themselves, as well as responsible travellers around the world. The competition invites schools to produce communication materials in the form of comics, videos and photography aimed at spreading the principles and contents of the #EnjoyRespectVenezia campaign, with the final evaluation and awarding of the winners. The award ceremony will take place in April 2020.
Experience with In June 2017, the City of Venice published the interactive map GeoIDS, available use of digital tools online, which allows tourists and residents to identify the officially registered tourist structures present in the City and allows anyone to submit online reports and requests for control for alleged establishment of irregular accommodation facilities: these reports are then checked by the competent offices inside the City Administration. The portal is a map tool that also allows you to extract lists of accommodations and carry out statistics. http://geoportale.comune.venezia.it/Html5Viewer/index.html?viewer=IDS.IDS&LO CALE=IT-it
The URBACT Local Group (ULG)
The ULG coordinator is, for phase I, Ms. Paola Mar. Entrepreneur, graduated in history at the University of Venice, she worked as administrative director and office manager for the Studio Architetti Mar. Since 2015 she has been nominated deputy mayor for Tourism at the City of Venice, promoting important City’s policies on tourism, with the aim of reducing tourist pressure and enhance sustainability. To ease coordination and synergy, for phase I, the ULG coordinator coincide with the coordinator of the DMO. For phase II it is foreseen that a dedicated person will be selected, either within the City organization or among the external entities.
Current ULG members are:
Organization Name ABBAV – Hosts community in Veneto Silvia Boselli AVA – Association of hotel owners in Claudio Scarpa Venice AVM – Venice public company for Giovanni Santoro mobility
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CCIAA – Chamber of Commerce of Monica Vittori Venezia and Rovigo CONFESERCENTI – Association of Cristina Giussani commercial enterprises CONFCOMMERCIO – Association of Francesco Antonich enterprises CONFINDUSTRIA – Association of François Droulers industries FONDAZIONE MUVE – Venice Mara Vittori museums foundation VELA – Venice public company for Piero Rosa Salva commercial services and events VERITAS – Venice public company for Riccardo Seccarello environmental issues AEPE – Association of bars and Paolo Friselle restaurants in Venice CONFARTIGIANATO VENEZIA – Enrico Vettore Association of artisan enterprises VENETO REGION Stefan Marchioro CITY OF VENICE Paola Mar Maurizio Carlin Elena Marini Maurizio Vezzà
The work carried out in Venice by the ULG during phase 1 of the Tourism Friendly Cities was focused on the presentation of the Tourism Friendly Cities and on the collation of questions from ULG members. The EU Policies Sector and the Tourism Sector illustrated the project to the ULG members at the meeting held on January 22nd 2020. Much interest was demonstrated by the ULG members on the participation in the project. During this first meeting, it was also explained that the 2nd phase of project implementation will be based on the implementation of the actions developed within the ULG.
2.3. Conclusion and small scale actions
As highlighted in each partner profile, tourism is an embedded part of each city’s reality and each community has strong incentives for making the impact of tourism more sustainable for their respective urban contexts. The diverse and unique experiences that TFC cities bring, in terms of nature of tourism, scale, aspirations, knowledge and expertise enable replication and scalability of the network outputs to many other European cities experiencing similar challenges on integrating in a sustainable way tourism in their local economy. This partnership, and also its holistic approach of analysing tourism at urban scale, is one of the pioneering initiatives of European cities working together to co-design solutions together with local stakeholders.
As partners became more aware of each other’s challenges, knowledge and expertise, it became more clear that the real question was centred on how to support this fine balance between residents, tourism industry and tourists needs. In this context, integrating the implementation of small scale actions during IAP development process was seen by partner cities as a way of leverage the structural changes they need to embark on. A tentative list, to be further refined at IAP development progresses and with peer support during transnational meetings may include the actions listed below.
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Partner Potential Focus on Small scale actions Genoa Managing tourist flows, also discovering new tourist itineraries Using social media ad digital tools to promote the city, involving residents and tourists Braga Apply the tourism tax in high season months, use the profit of the tax to reduce the ecological footprint left by tourists and for tourist policies Caceres and Druskiniskai New monitoring tool for day visitors and/or open data protocol Rovaniemi, Venice, Using social media and digital tools to raise awareness of tourists and Dubrovnik tourism industry Rovaniemi, Krakow Supporting the ULG to actively test a new governance framework for the sustainable tourism Utrecht, Dun Laoghaire Using social media and digital tools for engagement of residents in sustainable interactions with tourists
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3. SECTION 3 – SYNTHESIS AND METHODOLOGY
3.1. Introduction
Tourism-friendly Cities aims to define strategies to reshape tourist cities in a sustainable way, consolidating coherent and integrated processes that can be used for negotiating and balancing the needs and aspirations of the three tiers interacting at the urban scale– T1- the tourists, T2- the tourism industry andT3- the city with its residents.
The network directly addresses the multi-level (local, regional, national and European) governance challenges related to managing a tourism-friendly city in a resilient way by placing at its core the URBACT method. It uses an integrated approach for analysing the thematic content of the network, going beyond the economic competitiveness of the tourism sector, to integrate social, environmental and territorial implications, as well as hard and soft investments needed to tackle strategic directions linked to horizontal and vertical policy aspects. It makes use of the diverse and valuable local experience of partner cities related to tourism, fostering knowledge sharing and a new increased understanding of the sudden changes that can expose a city to a state of overtourism.
Most importantly, it gives the URBACT Local Groups a special role, for effectively testing out new governance frameworks that can involve key city stakeholders in the bold and hard decisions that cities need to take to addressing the wicked problem of balanced growth of tourism.
3.2. Analysis, Synthesis and Proposals for Phase 2 Phase I of the Tourism-Friendly Cities APN provided a timely micro cosmos on the European (and global) challenges connected to sustainable tourism.
Firstly, it revealed the cross-sectoral nature of the subject and unstructured way in which cities are trying to grasp the phenomenon. Our transnational meetings participant’s profiles showed a strong diversity of policy areas that had the motivation to take action towards transitioning their current practices towards sustainable tourism ones. These profiles included public servants and external ULG members from urban planning department, city /destination marketing and communication departments, local destination management organisations, housing department, local economic development department, culture and community engagement, port authorities, cultural heritage and tourism, European funds and International Affairs. Much more than breaking silos, it is about transferring key principles of the URBACT method, especially the ULG approach, to the modus operandi of the local level. This was one of key takeaways from each partner city visits, where we co-organized alongside each partner a meeting with the current or forming ULG. The ULG approach and the process it opens for the topic of tourism in cities was seen by every city partner as one bringing real added value and having the potential of reaping strong rewards later in terms of strategic choices for the city’s sustainable urban development.
Secondly, it revealed the fine line between a state of tourism-friendly and overtourism. Random events (choosing a set scene for a movie blockbuster, a sudden spike in preference for health tourism, outbreak of
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the Coronavirus in a market significantly linked to the local one) or deliberate actions from the past (an open policy for economic growth and attraction of tourism from two decades ago, European incentives aimed for economic competiveness from 15 years ago), as well as industry trends showing growth potential and increased importance of enabling technologies, can significantly influence the disruption that tourism can cause to the local economy and quality of life in cities. These states are not fixed ones, as they are strongly impacted by seasonality and by changes in sub-industries. This is why, partner cities found many cross-areas of learning and building practices together, as detailed further below.
Tourism-“friendly” state: Genoa, Braga, Caceres, Druskininkai, Dun Laoghaire, Rovaniemi, Utrecht Overtourism state: Dubrovnik, Krakow, Venice Source : City partner perceptions using temperature-check mapping exercise during kick-off meeting
Thirdly, it revealed the competing logic of the three tiers (T1- city and residents, T2- tourists and T3- tourism industry) that interact in the limited and physical space of a city. This entails a change not only on the governance system, but in supporting structured dialogue with key stakeholders in order to align actions and co-create a common vision for development that can balance residents and tourism needs. In order to better understand how TFC can actively pursue this in phase II, we worked with the lead partner city Genoa to design a change-making arena exercise called the living lab of Genoa, during the transnational kick-off meeting of the network in September 2019. Summarized below are the main learning questions clustered in our network’s subthemes, bringing together the city partners work during the living lab of Genoa and their further refinement during partner city visits and ULG consultations.
Subtheme 1: NIMBY - City and residents perspective
How can we effectively collect and measure residents perceptions on tourists, limiting the bias from local media portrayals of overtourism? How can we avoid the NIMBY ( Not In My Back Yard) effect connected to tourism? How can we support housing market to stay affordable? How can we capture value from sharing economy practices (AirBnB, Uber etc.) and digital platform (Booking.com etc.) in order to invest in local assets and neighbourhood improvement? How can we pay attention to gender sensitivity when undertaking small scale actions or designing routes/itineraries for tourists/visitors? How to make small scale actions friendly and accessible to vulnerable groups such as children, elderly, and less mobile people? How to persuade residents and the city council of the importance of sustainable tourism and Tourism-Friendly Cities? How to engage local citizens, stakeholders, and ULG members?
Subtheme 2: Rights and experiencing responsibilities- Tourists perspective
How can we effectively collect and measure tourist’s perceptions on sustainable tourism practices and wiliness to pay/take part in these practices? What is the impact of (sustainable) tourism on other policy areas? How to empower and motivate tourists and visitors to take action? How to give space for reflection of actions that tourists should not only be consumers of a place or experience?
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Subtheme 3: Global business with local impact- Tourism Industry perspective What defines sustainable tourism? How would a benchmark quantitative and qualitative value look for each of the TFC cities? What is the impact of (sustainable) tourism on other policy areas? What business models are local business using connected to tourism? What are the perceptions of risks from local businesses side for transitioning to sustainable tourism practices? What governance structure is needed for sustainable tourism to contribute in strengthening the local economy and community? How can we reward/signal good business practices? How to give space for reflection on the model of growth of the industry and its alignment with local development needs?
These three main revelations were afterwards operationalized by city partners into prioritizing the main challenges that will be addressed by the ULG and the focus of the IAPs, as well as expected changes to be seen at city level. We used an online mapping exercise between kick-off and final meeting of phase I in order to extract main ideas from each city partner. These main points were then further developed during the focus groups/ emerging ULG meetings organized during city visits and are presented below.
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Understanding the core challenge that each partner city would like to tackle in the ULG and the potential focus of each IAP, enabled our co-design process during the final phase I meeting in Braga on how network partners are going to be able to share experiences and expertise. For this, transnational exchange was seen as a core element and the programme of meetings was co-designed in order to accommodate a variety of experiences and site visits. Also, network partners suggested that they form thematic expertise clusters (Thematic City Cluster Knowledge providers –TCCK) depending on the subtheme explored and if they have relevant expertise to share. These clusters will co-design, alongside with the LE and potential ad-hoc experts, thematic sessions during transnational meetings and contribute to meeting outputs that are further used at local level.
For example, the strong experience of Genoa and Krakow in using the URBACT method and for engagement of the ULG will be leveraged as a capacity building action for the first phase II meeting. Citizen and stakeholder engagement practices will be further shared by Caceres, Dubrovnik, Dun Laoghaire and Rovaniemi. Expertise on research, monitoring and evaluation tools will be shared by Krakow, Utrecht and Rovaniemi in order to help each city benchmark sustainable tourism at IAPs inception process and develop a common framework for monitoring for the network. Venice and Rovaniemi will share their experience in environmental protection, while Druskininkai, Braga and Dun Laoghaire will lead the conversation on significant investments in good quality of life. Measures for actively addressing overtourism will be championed by Dubrovnik, Venice, Utrecht and Krakow, while the exploration of hybrid governance models has useful foundations in Genoa’s Tourism Tax management system and Utrecht’s Destination Management Organisation experience. Also, another thematic expertise cluster is formed by the partner cities of Genoa, Utrecht, Dun Laoghaire, Rovaniemi and Braga in terms of branding and use of digital tools, which is a topic where several cities from TFC expect to have significant changes because of the work in this network.
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3.3. Network Methodology
The learning and exchange processes in the TFC network will encompass a series of different elements, in order to cater to the city’s different focus areas of cities and paces. This will entail creating clusters of thematic and practical knowledge from partner cities and actively involving city partners in co-development content for the entire network.
The content of the transnational meetings follows the needs of the cities and is co-designed with the host city and the thematic knowledge cluster, using a mix of core building blocks (living lab, peer review, site visits, public sessions) and thematic-based deep dives. Moreover, we make sure the meetings also increase local support and expertise by involving local ULG, peers, decision-makers and politicians of the city we visit. Due to the richness of content of the network, we will maximize the time we have for transnational meetings (2-2.5 days) with several preparatory actions and moving most of the administrative and project management updates to online meetings.
The partner meetings and other activities are open to the actively involved teams of each partner cities, generally the project coordinator from each city, the ULG coordinator and a third representative. We strongly encourage the participation of ULG members. Depending on the content, for some meetings we recommend to each partner to bring thematic-related colleagues and stakeholders. We use a variety of methodologies, to make sure we can pair them to their peers of other cities, with similar themes/backgrounds, so that we accommodate a relevant transnational exchange even for participants who haven’t attended previous meetings. All methods described accommodate audio-visual aid, are interactive and empower partners to co-lead, in order to maximize engagement, comprehension and the overall learning experience of the cities.
Key elements: a. Partner meetings, including workshops on methodology; thematic deep dives related to the local challenge; site visits and sessions opened to the public/larger city community. Sessions will be co-developed and co-led with the Thematic City Cluster Knowledge formed by partner cities with the most relevant knowledge on the topic (TCCK), based on webinar preparations taking place with 6 weeks prior to the meeting. Also, we will make use of external expertise, especially for the capacity building actions of each meeting and their outputs. These meetings will be attended by all project partners.
Meeting Thematic Focus Capacity Building Actions #1- June 2020- Dun Subtheme 1: NIMBY - City and Focus: diversity of ULG, commitment of Laoghaire residents perspective stakeholders, overview IAP roadmap and preparation for USU 2020, Discussing insights site visits & city visit
Methodology:
Wrap-up from phase I – ice-breaker and quiz from knowledge extracted from webinar preparations and agreed next steps in final meeting of phase I in Braga. TCCK on subtheme 1 and site visits: Dun Laoghaire, Genoa, Braga, Caceras, Druskininkai Method: world café, each group prepares as a conclusion an observation sheet to be used in the site visit in Dun Laoghaire and city visit in Dublin, small group discussions for insights, conclusions in plenary.
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TCCK on IAP roadmap: Krakow, Utrecht, Rovaniemi Method: pre-filled roadmap brought by each city, pairing of cities for peer review and benchmark of indicators, cluster of challenges/questions in facilitated discussion in plenary. TCCK on ULG engagement best practices: Genoa – actor analysis and matrix of stakeholder engagement Site visits:
#2- October 2020 - Subtheme 2: Rights and experiencing Focus: small scale actions as catalysts for Dubrovnik responsibilities- Tourists perspective structural changes; Discussing insights site visit; checkpoint IAP development
Methodology:
TCCK on subtheme 2 and site visit: Dubrovnik, Venice, Utrecht, Krakow Method: user empathy map and interview guidelines developed by TCCK in advance, team work during site visit to fill in the handout templates based on onsite interviews with tourism industry representatives, small group discussions for insights, conclusions in plenary. TCCK on IAP checkpoint: Genoa, Caceres, Braga Small scale actions planning and review Method: pre-filled theory of change working sheet brought by each city, pairing of cities for exchange on planned actions and potential risks, cluster of challenges/questions in facilitated discussion in plenary. #3- January 2021- Subtheme 3: Global business with Focus: checkpoint IAP development and Rovaniemi local impact- Tourism Industry communication plan; Discussing insights perspective site visit.
Methodology:
Wrap Up of 2020: quiz on progress of network and “New Year’s resolutions” TCCK on subtheme 3 and site visit: Rovaniemi, Venice, Druskininkai, Dubrovnik Method: urban dilemma presentations covering the transformation of the local-global tourism industry in TCC cities, future scenario for analysing implications for all cities. TCCK on IAP and communication checkpoint: Dun Laoghaire, Druskiniskai, Venice #4- May 2021- IAP- Environmental dimension Focus: Mid Term Reflection Druskininkai implications (State of Actions Report), Draft Integrated Action Plan, Discussing insights site visit. Methodology:
Mid Term Reflection - Method: Discussing MTR-survey filled in my cities prior to meeting; feedback in peer- review session for state of actions reports TCCK on environment and site visit: Venice, Dun Laoghaire, Druskiniskai, Rovaniemi Method: outcome mapping exercise on draft IAPs on actions with environmental implications.
#5- Sept 2021- IAP- Governance implications Focus: URBACT Network page updates, Krakow checkpoint small scale actions; Discussing insights site visit, Discussing potential funding sources for the IAP.
Methodology: TCCK on governance and site visit: Genoa, Utrecht, Krakow Method: outcome mapping exercise on draft IAPs on its governance implications for each city. Small scale actions review – update on theory of change model after/during implementation, harvesting emerging lessons learned and potential for replicability/scalability- small group work
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URBACT Network page updates- interactive marketplace exercise, harvesting capitalisation needs to inform training at next meeting
#6- December IAP- Economic implications Focus: Compare & review IAPs; training 2021- Utrecht communication & follow-up; Discussing insights site visit and city visit (critical friend visit)
Methodology: TCCK on economic and site visit: Utrecht, Dubrovnik, Druskininkai Method: outcome mapping exercise on draft IAPs on actions with high impact on the local economic base. Training capitalisation (communication and follow up)
Final meeting Focus: Network final IAP meeting, #7- end of March/ IAP- Social implications and legacy of preparing the URBACT Festival early April 2022- the Tourism-friendly cities network participation, ULG as permanent Venice observatory on sustainable tourism practice Methodology:
ULG legacy- world cafe Public event- conference- showcasing results and ways ahead for cities championing sustainable tourism TCCK on social dimension and site visit: Venice, Genoa, Rovaniemi, Braga Method: outcome mapping exercise on final IAPs on actions with high social implications. Quiz finale- documenting change and lessons learned in TFC network.
b. Online Tri- and Bilateral meetings (webinar preparations), between cities that can act as thematic knowledge providers (TCCK) for the local challenge being discussed or the core perspective (city and resident, tourists and tourism industry) and implementation dimension analysed (social, environmental, economic, governance) on the next partner meeting. Taking place with approximately 6 weeks before a meeting, facilitated by LE and LP. Moreover, we pay special attention to gender equality and discuss in advance of the transnational meetings potential attendees and how to ensure a balanced distribution between female and male participants. c. Webinar series with external expert, inviting speakers to share their experience and knowledge, room for Q&A. The first will be dedicated to ULG engagement. d. Webinar check-ins, partner cities can raise questions to discuss deeper, often linked to methodology and administrative progress. e. Peer-coaching. At least one peer review of the Integrated Action Plans, but also possibly pairing of cities for monthly check-in/exchange, depending on feedback from partner meetings and webinar check-ins. f. Study visit to cities not part of the network. During the first partner meeting in Dun Laoghaire a site visit to Dublin will be organized, especially for meetings with AirBnb and other tech giants representatives, as well as document the impact of tourism and strong presence of a tech economy on the city and the residents. During the meeting in Utrecht a potential visit can be in Amsterdam to document any potential results and effects that the new national strategy of dispersing tourists had for the city. g.Technical visit on capitalisation of network outputs. Caceres will host a technical visit to the one of the most important events for the tourism industry – the FITUR Madrid. The technical visit will take place end of
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January 2022, in order to capitalise on emerging TFC network outputs and refine with industry stakeholder inputs the final outputs that will be presented at the final meeting in Venice. h. Library @basecamp. Tourism-friendly cities is about breaking silos and building a holistic understanding of socio, economic and environmental implication of tourism in cities. This is why we want to bring in the project what has been already developed in each of these dimensions and curate a common understanding of governance implications for cities. We will actively explore knowledge created under Horizon2020, Interreg, URBACT projects. i. URBACT capacity building tools and support. Making use of the knowledge produced by URBACT at programme level, such as the guidance on ULG, writing styles, use of social media and report on Gender- equal cities. Also, the URBACT Summer University (USU) taking place in our network’s partner city Dubrovnik in July 2020 will support the capacity of the network around IAP roadmap, while the URBACT Festival in 2022 will offer an ideal opportunity of presenting TFC’s legacy.
Where possible and relevant, making links with other running URBACT-networks.
3.4. Network outputs, communication and dissemination The outputs of TFC network are developed not only to be used by partner cities themselves, but also to be able to share knowledge and inspiration to other cities. Each transnational meeting will be summarized in a factsheet by the lead expert (with potential aid from external expertise) based on the main conclusions agreed with all attendees. This document, containing also pictures from the meeting and site visits, useful links and tools that emerged during the workshops, quotes and insights will be then shared by each partner city with their ULG. Each ULG will be tasked to produce a reflection diary entry based on each TM factsheet (to be later used as a blog post and TFC URBACT page update, Facebook post, as well Twitter and Insta-story) in maximum 8 weeks after a transnational meeting (a possible exception will be the first diary reflection after the Dun Laoghaire meeting that should be done until end September 2020, to take into account summer holidays period). This will also facilitate the transfer of capacity building actions and tools explored in each TM to the local level and support for the development and implantation of the IAPs. Also, these outputs will be part of the local communication plans, as well as the network’s communication plan and will contribute to the TFC network URBACT page updates.
All diary entries, case studies used during site visits and fact sheet will be available to other cities. Moreover, each city will work on defining and benchmarking its sustainable tourism state in 2020, and monitor its development throughout 2022. The results of the monitoring will be shared in conferences (such as FITUR Madrid, Eurocities meetings, within EU Urban Agenda Partnerships on Housing and Culture and Heritage, within final network conference in Venice and URBACT Festival). After the end of project, this practice, together with the ULG modus operandi will be continued in the ULG as permanent observatory in each partner city and a guideline (playbook) on how to replicate this practice will be available for other cities.
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Because of the lack of evidence-based documentation on the impact of the cross-cutting sector of tourism on cities and governance implications, we expect that the work of the network will fill in the gap in what is now a framework dominated by national-level available data and practices. This is why, the core output of TFC will be the IAPs developed by each city together with their ULGs, integrating the capacity building action described in the methodology. The small scale actions will also have a key role of leveraging the structural changes needed in cities and accelerating the implementation of the IAPs.
Also, each city partner has committed on leveraging its own networks described in the city profiles section in order to support in-country peer learning, by inviting other cities from their country to visit and learn from their experiences. Each city will organize a local dissemination event.
Main outputs will include:
Main Outputs Number Delivery date, Responsible frequency
Coordination Meetings (online and 10 Network defined Lead Partner physical) – WP1
Transnational Meetings 7 Network defined Network Experts (with City Partner input)
Mid Term reflection (state of the 1 May 2021 Lead Expert (with art report) partners inputs)
IAP Report 1 March 2022 Lead Expert (with City Partners inputs)
Integrated Action Plans- draft 10 Consolidated draft City partners versions delivered in May 2021
Final draft versions delivered in September 2021
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ULG meetings (including SSA and 80 By the end of the City Partners (with optional dissemination event) project Lead Expert support)
IAP roadmap 10 September 2020 City Partners
Final IAP 10 May 2022 City Partner
Communication plan 1 June 2020 (it can Lead Partner (with be revised Lead Expert and city through-out ph. II) partner inputs)
Follow-up factsheet/blog post, 7 4 weeks after each Lead expert, Ad-hoc published on dedicated URBACT transnational Expert webpage, TFC twitter and meeting Instagram account.
It will account to the URBACT network page updates (at least 24) described in WP4 in phase II application
Diary reports of local ULG 7 8 weeks after each City Partners and reflections based on TNM transnational each local ULG factsheets and input from partner meeting city representatives that attended
It will account to the URBACT network page updates (at least 24) described in WP4 in phase II application
Commons set of indicators for 1 October 2020 City partners, Lead sustainable tourism and urban Expert, Ad-hoc expert governance
Monitoring report per each city of 1 December 2021 City partners, Lead state of sustainable tourism and expert, Ad-hoc expert urban governance, based on the common set of indicators
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Briefing/ white paper targeting 1 April 2022 Lead Expert, Lead key EU stakeholders, based on Partner, City main takeaways of the monitoring Partners, Ad-hoc reports of each city Expert
City guidance for continuing the 10 December 2021 City Partners legacy of the ULG as a permanent observatory to sustainable tourism
Small Scale Actions To be determined by April 2022 City Partners city partner as they advance in the IAP development
Most importantly, the main output of the Tourism-friendly cities network relies on its core-added value: consolidation of participatory urban governance practices though new ULG models and co-creating tourism strategies. The network partners have clearly identified that in order to see change happen at local level, an increased understanding from all community and industry stakeholder needs to be nurtured in order to accommodate a sustainable development of tourism, as part of the local economy and realities of city life. The commitment shown by all cities that are part of this network and have embarked in this journey shows strong potential for making such changes happen and showcasing at European and global level a potential way forward to the present conundrum concerning tourism.
Tourism-friendly Cities kick-off meeting pf phase I in Genoa between September 26-27,2019
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