All together, the countries on the shores of the Mediterranean form the world’s leading tourist destination. In the course of 1997, they were visited by 234 million international tourists, in addition to the national tourism of each respective country. Every year, their coastal areas welcome in the region of 200 million tourists in addition to the 140 million stable population of the coastline. This concentration in space and time produced by the marked seasonal nature of tourism represents a major impact on the territory.

Mass tourism is partly responsible for the environmental problems currently afflicting the Mediterranean, particularly those caused by intensive urbanisation, pollution and high levels of resource consumption, especially during the high season.

Yet if tourism is capable of integrating the criteria of sustainable development, it is one of the activities which best adapt to the territory. As well as helping to create wealth and employment, it can contribute to the conservation and improved management of natural resources which could otherwise be impoverished or ultimately even disappear altogether.

Tourism brings together a great many different sectors and interests. If far-reaching changes are to be introduced into traditional tourism models, it is vital for all tourism-related agents to get involved.

This is the reality behind the creation of Ulixes 21, for sustainable tourism in the Mediterranean. This project is promoted by MED Forum, Mediterranean NGO Network for Ecology and Sustainable Development, and implemented by EcoMediterrània (Spain), CLAPE-LR (France), and APE Wilaya de Tétouan and ASMAPE (Morocco).

Ulixes 21 is a project based on informing and raising awareness on the various agents involved in tourism to the need for greater integration of environmental issues in the planning, management and consumption of tourism.

In the framework of this project, the international congress Sustainable tourism in the Mediterranean. The participation of civil society was held in Sant Feliu de Guíxols (Catalonia-Spain) on 22, 23 and 24 October 1998. During the congress, a series of conclusions were reached which form the basis of the following declaration:

Stating that overall percentages for the Mediterranean as a tourist destination have decreased as emerging areas begin to take over —30% of the world market in 1996 as opposed to 37% in 1970— but it is still the leading tourist area, and that forecasts suggest an increase in numbers of international tourists;

Observing that for some time now there has been a negative perception of tourism as an activity which creates a negative impact for society and the natural and cultural heritage of the area which hosts it;

Convinced that tourism is a good way of working towards sustainable development in the Mediterranean, due to its capacity to generate economic resources (it produced an annual income for 1997 of over 115,000 million US dollars and employed over 6 million people), and manage and conserve natural and cultural resources;

Highlighting that the Mediterranean is an area which is rich in terms of landscape and culture, it has seen the birth of civilisations and its waters been the medium of exchanges which have shaped the social and economic structure of the settlements along its shores;

Remembering that the Mediterranean has also unfortunately been an area of conflict and wars, and continues to be;

Insisting on the need to continue working for the Mediterranean to be an area for co-operation and development with cultural, environmental and economic diversity which is seen as a value to be safeguarded;

Convinced that tourism has to undergo structural changes to make it less seasonal in nature (80% of tourists come between May and September); be extended to all regions (85% of tourism is concentrated in the four European Union member countries) and be more sensitive to the characteristics of each of these areas;

Underlining that in order to bring about this change, tourism has to be based on criteria of sustainability, and be ecologically acceptable, economically viable, socially just and institutionally feasible;

Convinced of the need for the greater involvement of civil society in the processes which affect tourism, specifically the planning and management of tourist spaces;

For all of these reasons, and with a view to achieving more sustainable tourism in the Mediterranean, the NGOs meeting in Barcelona (Spain) between 19 and 20 November 1998 on the occasion of the V Mediterranean Environmental Forum undertake to apply and publicise the following priority actions:

1. Setting forward good practices for sustainable tourism and publicise their results throughout the Mediterranean. Continuing to promote projects such as Ulixes 21, for sustainable tourism in the Mediterranean, implemented by MED Forum.

For a new model of tourism

2. The promotion of restructuring of tourist areas on the Mediterranean coastline to combine natural and cultural heritage. The incorporation into a global strategy of those countries which are overlooked by the tourist process and inland regions which are often undervalued and relegated to a subordinate role to the coastline.
3. Avoiding the concentration of tourism, particularly on the coastline, and the seasonal trend of tourism.
4. The development of policies to protect the coastal zone, which is the area that bears the brunt of the negative impact of tourism. The proposal to create Specially Protected Areas of Mediterranean Importance (SPAMI) in keeping with the Protocol on Specially Protected Areas and Biodiversity in the Mediterranean (SPA Protocol) of the Barcelona Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment and Coastal Zones of the Mediterranean (1995), and the application of other protective measures, according to prevailing legislation in each region, with a view to achieving the effective protection of at least 20% of the coastline of each country and protect it from urban planning pressure. These areas should have sustainable tourism development plans.
5. The diversification of tourist destinations and the creation of their own personality, avoiding standardisation and promoting individual identities with a new range of tourism which combines culture, nature, leisure and tourism, and where the territory itself plays a major role. The Local Agenda 21 is the ideal instrument to channel civil participation, particularly on the part of local NGOs. Central and regional governments should provide the necessary technical and financial back-up to enable all local governments to develop their own Agenda 21.
6. Avoiding the reductionism of "accommodation = tourist destination", offering integrated tourist products of cultural and landscape interest which are open to the host region and society and, particularly on the coast, which avoid the creation of self-contained tourist complexes and the privatisation of the coastline.
7. The reduction of the seasonal nature of tourism by publicising the advantages of visiting the Mediterranean when there are fewer tourists and adapting the range of tourist facilities and products. The development of alternative forms of tourism to the traditional sun-and-sand pitch: cultural, rural, ecological, urban, congresses, etc.
8. The promotion of a form of tourism which consumes fewer resources to ensure that as an economic activity it makes the overexploitation of energy and resource cycles a thing of the past, and policies to encourage the use of public transport. NGOs denounce policies which encourage greater consumption of resources, and intend to demand strategies and programmes of environmental action, and environmental impact studies.

Policies for sustainability

9. Avoiding and denouncing policies which create confusion about sustainability. Shunning erroneous policies which, under the pretence of providing "quality" tourism, promote projects which only involve further impoverishment of the landscape, homogenisation of the options offered, loss of identity and biodiversity, etc. NGOs, as representatives of organised civil society, have to denounce the misappropriation of concepts of sustainability.
10. The design of proposals which enable tourism to help to protect the environment, rehabilitate impoverished landscapes, value heritage and attain and consolidate peace. Avoiding activities which potentially generate tension between tourists and the local population. NGOs propose that international Mediterranean forums consider the protection of the environment in conjunction with combating poverty, with a view to achieving a form of international tourism which is socially just.
11. Demanding transparency in all decisions which concern tourism, in view of the scope of its repercussions for the Mediterranean. Access to all tourism-related information and the establishing of mechanisms to allow NGOs to participate in decision-making processes.

Information and participation

12. Getting tourist operators involved with a view to changing the course of tourism, as regards supply and demand. It is necessary for tourist operators to support and carry out environmental education programmes, and for tourists to take an active role in the creation of sustainable tourism; to encourage long stays rather than "lightning" visits, particularly when tourists come from a long way away. NGOs will promote joint work with private economic sectors which support and practise a model of sustainable tourism.
13. Encouraging greater involvement, on the part of the local population in general and of NGOs in particular, in tourism planning and management. Sustainable tourism has to be socially just in terms of the redistribution of the wealth it generates if it is to avoid the breakdown of the host social structure. Tourism has to be one element more in a diversified economy, avoiding concentration on tourism as a single source of revenue.
14. The promotion of initiatives and programmes to raise awareness and inform tourists, residents, production sectors and government agents. Publicising the values of sustainability in every sense. NGOs will play a leading role in publicising the values of sustainability in tourism.
15. The creation of a permanent forum of debate, which could be incorporated into existing international bodies (Mediterranean Commission on Sustainable Development - MAP/UNEP, World Tourism Organisation - WTO, the Euro-Mediterranean Process, etc.), with the representation of all the sectors involved and on which NGOs should be the members which represent tourists and civil society in general.
16. The integration of concepts and values of sustainability in the training of professionals and obtaining the involvement and complicity of the media in publicising these values. NGOs will be involved at grassroots level, drawing up teaching materials, and organising training and dissemination activities, both for these collectives and their associates and volunteers.

Consensus and joint action

17. The encouragement of consensus and joint action among the various parties involved in a given tourist area, so that all activities are carried out in the framework of an integrated plan for sustainable development and contradictory schemes can be avoided.

Sant Feliu de Guíxols (Spain), October 1998.
International Congress Sustainable Tourism in th Mediterranean.
The participation of civil society.