Tourism in the focus of the European Parliamentarians

The youngest EU member state - Croatia, took the initiative to organise the First Inter-parliamentary Conference on the Challenges of Sustainable Tourism, which was hosted by the Committee on Tourism of the Croatian Parliament in Zagreb and Mali Lošinj, on 10-12 September 2014 (http://www.sabor.hr/English). The conference was attended by representatives of the EU parliamentary committees responsible for tourism, as well as by South East European accession candidate countries and potential candidate countries, who met for the first time to exchange views and experiences on two big challenges of sustainable tourism: promotion of cultural heritage and environmental protection.

At the invitation of the Chairman of the Committee on Tourism of the Croatian Parliament, the PAP/RAC Director attended the Conference on behalf of UNEP/MAP. She was given the opportunity to speak about the pressures made by tourism on the Mediterranean coastal and marine environment and to propose a new approach to the strategic planning of sustainable tourism development that, when it comes to the coastal zones, can largely benefit from the principles, methods and tools promoted by ICZM.