On 10 and 11 May 2017, PAP/RAC hosted in its premises the 2nd Steering Committee meeting of the Co-Evolve project. The event that gathered 29 participants including representatives of 6 project partner institutions and 6 pilot areas was an opportunity to review the progress of project activities.
One of the meeting objectives was to present the progress of the analysis of the key threats and enabling factors for co-evolution of sustainable coastal and marine tourism in the Mediterranean, which is currently being developed by institutional partners with the support of pilot area coordinators. Another important item of the agenda was the presentation of the progress of work in the pilot areas which are located in Croatia, France, Greece, Italy and Spain. Even though their work will officially start when the analysis is finalized, a preliminary work has already been launched, including the identification of the main stakeholders and interviews with tourism actors in order to fine tune the proposed activities.
In the afternoon of the second day of this fruitful meeting, a technical visit to one of the pilot areas - the Kaštela Bay was organized for the participants. In Kaštel Suæurac, a representative of the project partner RERA, the public institution for coordination and development of the Split-Dalmatia County, informed the participants on the issues and opportunities of the area. He explained that the Kaštela Bay had been previously assessed in UN environment/MAP studies as one of the “climatic hot spots” of the Croatian coast, and that it would be crucial to properly include that threat when planning tourism development. Participants were then taken to the castle of Kaštel Lukšiæ, and as the wind was raging that day they had an opportunity to see how waves were already entering through the main door, endangering the castle which could be of great value for cultural tourism.
