Pressures of nautical tourism on coastal areas

A meeting held at the "Park" hotel in Rovinj, Croatia, on May 19 - 20, 2007, was attended by about fifty participants, mainly mayors of Mediterranean cities disposing of nautical tourism marinas. The mayors coming from Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain are members of AEMA association. Rovinj is the only city in Croatia, which is the AEMA member since 2002. With that regard, Mr. I. Jakovcic, representative of the Adriatic Euro-region, promised that efforts would be made to include in AEMA all the cities of the newly established Euro-region.

The topic of the meeting was Environment, Tourism and Coastal Areas Management, and possible collaboration on INTERREG III programme funds. Mr. I. Trumbiæ, PAP/RAC Director, gave a presentation on the protection of the Mediterranean coastal belt, pointing out the pressures caused by economic sectors, in particular tourism, and population movement towards the sea. One of the priority tasks for Croatia is implementation of the Regulation on coastal belt protection, in particular protection from over building. The meeting also discussed issues related to marinas use and management, organisation of events related to the sea, tourism, which would be based on local resources, and alike.