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Tourism in the Mediterranean
175,726,000 international tourists visited the Mediterranean Basin in 1996. To put it another way, that year the Mediterranean shoreline received about 30% of all world tourism. This tourist flow provides the Mediterranean with about 5 million jobs and an annual income of more than 100,000 million dollars, about 7% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the coastal strip of the Mediterranean basin.

Yet the tourist industry has a major environmental impact, especially on the coastline. Water, flora, fauna and landscape are all attacked by the "sun and beach" model of tourism, a model based on extensive growth and indiscriminate land use in which the supply is concentrated in time and space, and exceeds the carrying capacity of the territory. The four European Union countries in the Mediterranean Basin account for more than 75% of the area's tourist activity. Although the Mediterranean is the world's main tourist focus, in the last five years it has lost more than 5% of the world tourism market, and most of its tourist spaces are in a structural crisis.

Sustainable tourism

The need for sustainable development, "which meets current needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs" is one of the world priorities clearly defined in the Rio Conference's Agenda 21, and the 5th Community Action Program for Sustainable Development. We consider that tourist activity has to value the natural and cultural resources of an area, rather than waste them.

The mass tourism model is clearly unsustainable because it does not take into account the importance of the conservation of spaces or the rational use of natural resources, because it does not integrate the special features of an area into its tourist offer, giving rise to a highly unequal distribution of the resulting profits, and in general ignores the qualitative aspects while emphasising growth. In contrast, a sustainable tourism model ensures this sector's development is compatible with respect for, and the conservation of, natural spaces and cultural and social values, something that favours the reduction of conflicts between the tourist industry, the visitors, the residents and the environment. The four main attributes or characteristics of sustainable tourism are: that it is long-lasting, environment-friendly, integrated at the same time as diversified, and participatory.

Project Ulixes 21

Aims:
Project Ulixes 21's aims are to inform, educate and raise the awareness of the agents involved in tourist activity on the need for a greater integration of environmental problems in the planning and the consumption patterns of all the tourism-derived activities in order to ensure the sustainable development of tourism in the Mediterranean coastline. The project is aimed at both potential tourists and at local government bodies, towns and villages, and all the social sectors and economic sub-sectors directly or indirectly related to tourism. The project is concentrated in two of the main tourist receiving states on the Mediterranean's coastline, France and Spain, and also in Morocco, which is starting to implement the mass tourism model, though this is in an emerging phase. The project also concentrates on three of the main countries of origin for tourists going to these areas, Germany, the United Kingdom and France

Activities
To reach the different receptor areas involved, the program has designed several tools to be developed and supplied over the coming year.

Web page
The creation of a web-page, that is both FUN and PARTICIPATORY, where users, tourism experts, local government officials, schoolchildren, etc., can find information about the program and documentation on sustainability and on tourism. Several European NGOs are collaborating in publicising this page, which is in English, French, German, Spanish and Catalan.

> Campaign to raise public awareness
Producing and publishing mass diffusion material aimed directly at the tourists. A questionnaire has been produced to encourage tourists to reflect on their attitudes as tourists. 500,000 copies will be printed in 4 languages - German, French, English and, Spanish -, which will be distributed through tourism offices and with the help of the NGOs of the EEB Network (European Environmental Bureau) and other European NGOs. It can also be filled in on the Web-page.

Book-Guide:
For Sustainable Tourism in the Mediterranean. Guide for Local Management

Publishing a book-guide aimed at tourist managers containing proposals to apply aspects of sustainability to the local management of tourism. Three editions will be printed, 1,500 in French, 1,000 in Spanish and 1,000 in Catalan, and they will be sent free of charge to the different local and regional authorities responsible for tourism in the Mediterranean coastline. It is also possible to download it from the Web site.

Travelling exhibition
The organization of a photo exhibition accompanied by explanatory texts on environmental aspects of the Mediterranean coastline, and proposals for more rational tourist management. The exhibition will follow this route: Tarragona, Calviˆ, Roses, Argels-sur-Mer, Gruissan, TŽtouan, Andalusia, Community of Valencia.

International Congress:
"For Sustainable Tourism in the Mediterranean: the participation of civil society"

Organization of an International Congress which will include presentation of the main results of Project Ulixes 21, and which will try to start a debate on the six years of sustainability and tourism since Rio, and on the need for the involvement of civil society in the change towards sustainable tourism in the Mediterranean. The congress will be held on October 22, 23 and 24, 1998 in Sant Feliu de Gu’xols (Catalonia, Spain).

Funding, design and performance:

Project Ulixes 21 has been financed by Directorate General XI of the European Union, the Languedoc-Roussillon Region, the Environment Ministry of the Generalitat of Catalonia and the Environment Ministry of the Junta of Andalusia, government, together with the contributions of the city councils of Tarragona, Calviˆ, Roses, Gruissan and Argels-sur-Mer.

Project Ulixes 21 has been designed by EcoMediterrˆnia and carried out by EcoMediterrˆnia, the ComitŽ de Liaison des Associations pour l'Environnement du Languedoc-Roussillon (the Liaison Committee of Environmental Associations in Languedoc-Roussillon), l'Association de Protection de l'Environnement pour la Wilaya de Tetouan, and the Association Marocaine pour la Protection de l'Environnement (ASMAPE), all of which are members of MedForum, the Network of Mediterranean NGOs. The project's budget is 37,000,000 pesetas, 50% of which is European Union funding. The period of performance is a year and a half.

> EcoMediterránia is an NGO that seeks to contribute to improving the environmental situation within a perspective of advancing towards a sustainable model of development. The priority field of action is the coastline, and the field of reference is the Mediterranean.

> EcoMediterrániaforms part of the MedForum Network, with which it coordinates its actions and draws up joint strategies, in addition to being the site of its registered office and its General Secretariat.

EcoMediterrˆnia
Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, 643
08010 Barcelona
Tel: +34 (9)3 412 55 99
Fax: +34 (9)3 412 46 22
ecoMed@pangea.org

For further information, please contact Ana
Montserrat and Ariadna Guasch.