Ministry of Tourism and Environment SUSTAINABLE TOURISM INDICATORS AND DESTINATION MANAGEMENT Regional Workshop Kolašin, Montenegro, 25-27 April 2007 FINAL REPORT CONTENTS Foreword by Mr. Predrag Nenezic, Minister of Tourism and Environment of Montenegro 1 INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................... 3 2 SUSTAINABLE TOURISM IN MONTENEGRO AND THE BJELASICA AND KOMOVI REGION ........................................................................................... 5 3 WORKSHOP PRESENTATIONS AND VISITS...................................................... 11 4 METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH ........................................................................ 17 5 IDENTIFICATION OF ISSUES AND INDICATORS FOR SUSTAINABLE TOURISM IN BJELASICA AND KOMOVI.............................................................. 21 6 MONITORING AND MEASUREMENT PROCESSES ........................................... 41 7 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE WORKSHOP............ 43 8 BASELINE INDICATORS FOR TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN THE NORTHERN MOUNTAIN REGION OF MONTENEGRO ...................................... 45 ANNEX A: FORMS............................................................................................................ 49 Form 1 - Field visit evaluation sheet ............................................................................. 49 Form 2 - Situation analysis worksheet .......................................................................... 51 Form 3 - Sustainability objective and issue analysis worksheet ....................................... 53 Form 4 - Indicators Selection Worksheet....................................................................... 61 Form 5 - Action Plan Worksheet .................................................................................. 63 Form 6 - Monitoring plan worksheet ............................................................................. 65 ANNEX B: SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES AND INDICATORS ................................................... 67 ANNEX C: MONITORING SURVEYS.................................................................................. 81 ANNEX D: SUSTAINABLE TOURISM INDICATOR SETS..................................................... 87 ANNEX E: SURVEYS & VISITOR CENCUS IN THE BJELASICA-KOMOVI REGION .............. 93 ANNEX F: WORKSHOP PROGRAMME............................................................................ 101 ANNEX G: PARTICIPANTS LIST AND CONTACT INFORMATION ..................................... 105 AKNOWLEDGEMENTS UNWTO is particularly grateful to the Ministry of Tourism and Environment, Republic of Montenegro, for supporting the workshop and especially to Marija Kecojevic for her considerable efforts in organising the event. The close involvement of the Austrian Montenegrin Partnership for Bjelasica and Komovi added greatly to the workshop’s success and we are especially grateful to Gorica Bojic, Project Manager, for the time she devoted to it. The UNWTO team of experts facilitating the workshop included: • Mr Gabor Vereczi, UNWTO, Sustainable Development of Tourism Department • Dr Richard Denman, The Tourism Company, UK • Mr Christoph Stein, WWF Mediterranean Programme The report was prepared by Richard Denman, with input from Gabor Vereczi and Christoph Stein on the working group results. The document was edited by Gabor Vereczi. Photos: Gabor Vereczi (on the cover: the lake at Biogradska Gora National Park) Sustainable tourism indicators and destination management 1 Workshop, Kolašin, Montenegro 25-27 April 2007 Sustainable tourism indicators and destination management 2 Workshop, Kolašin, Montenegro 25-27 April 2007 1 INTRODUCTION In April 2007 the World Tourism Organization, in conjunction with the Ministry of Tourism and the Environment of Montenegro, held a workshop on Sustainable Tourism Indicators and Destination Management in the mountain Resort Hotel Bianca in Kolašin, in northern Montenegro. This three day event was attended by some 100 delegates from the local region, elsewhere in Montenegro and seven countries of Central and South-East Europe. Tourism has become one of Europe’s most important and fastest growing sectors. The continent is the world’s largest tourist receiving region, and is also one of the key tourism source markets. Tourism has a major impact on natural and built environments and on the wellbeing and culture of host populations, and these effects can be positive or negative, depending on how tourism is developed and managed. At the same time, the concept of sustainable development has become widely accepted as the way to a better, more humane and socially responsible future. There is a growing belief that tourism can play a significant role in sustainable development. The World Tourism Organization, in its capacity as Specialised Agency of the United Nations, encourages all countries to ensure that their policies and actions for the development and management of tourism fully embrace the principles of sustainability. In this context, UNWTO has been increasingly putting at the centre of its activities the concern for sustainability, undertaking research and capacity building activities on different aspects regarding tourism policies, and its development, management, regulation, and similar issues of public concern. In order to ensure the long-term sustainability of the tourism sector, there is a need for effective policies and plans at all levels, especially at the local destination level, where tourism activities take place, tourists interact with service providers and with communities, and where tourism’s positive and negative impacts are most felt. Destinations represent complex situations with a wide range of attractions and activities offered, with a wide variety of local tourism stakeholders intervening from the public, private and civil sectors, affecting the environmental and socio-economic resource base of the tourism sector. For the sustainable development of tourism destinations there is a need for a coordinated effort between all interest groups, through systematically developed and implemented management plans. UNWTO’s Sustainable Development of Tourism Department has developed a range of technical guidelines and manuals for sustainable tourism policies, with practical tools for destinations. Among these, indicators are essential instruments in the tourism planning, management and monitoring processes, providing accurate information for decision- making. The Workshop on Sustainable Tourism Indicators and Destination Management in Montenegro led participants through hands-on exercises in order to experience the use of practical approaches to the identification of indicators in the context of destination management. The Bjelasica and Komovi region, with the Biogradska Gora National Park at its centre, served as a pilot destination to demonstrate a participatory planning process and the application of indicators, through field exercises and working groups with the involvement of national and local stakeholders, led by the UNWTO experts. The workshop methodology was designed in a way that can be replicated and adapted to other locations. Sustainable tourism indicators and destination management 3 Workshop, Kolašin, Montenegro 25-27 April 2007 The importance of indicators in the sustainable development of tourism destinations UNWTO has been conducting research and capacity building activities in the field of sustainable tourism indicators for more than a decade. The essence of the indicators program of UNWTO is risk management and provision of critical information to those in planning and management so that they can anticipate and prevent unacceptable and unsustainable outcomes. Better information through indicators provides the ability to define risks to key assets, to communities, to the values most important to the communities and tourists, and the levels of preparedness of destinations in the event of problems or as a means to anticipate and prevent them. The UNWTO Guidebook on Indicators of Sustainable Development for Tourism Destinations (2004) is designed to help identify key issues and the indicators which can help managers respond effectively to them and sustain what makes a destination viable and attractive. Indicators are defined as “measures of the existence or severity of current issues, signals of upcoming situations or problems, measures of risk and potential need for action, and means to identify and measure the results of our actions. Indicators are information sets which are formally selected to be used on a regular basis to measure changes that are of importance for tourism development or management.” (UNWTO Guidebook, 2004 p8). Used properly, indicators can become key management tools – performance measures which supply essential information both to the managers and to all of the stakeholders in tourism. Good indicators can provide in-time information to deal with pressing issues and to help guide the sustainable development of a destination. At each tourism destination there exist certain data and information that can serve as sustainability indicators if their relevance is understood. Tourism professionals work regularly with indicators. The most commonly used and understood indicators are volumetric, including tourist arrivals, overnights spent, and accommodation capacities, or economic, such as tourism revenues and expenditures. These are reference points for business decisions and for ongoing management of the