On 28 January 2022, Michael Hošek, President of the EUROPARC Federation, communicated to the Vesuvius National Park Authority the awarding of the coveted recognition “Award of European Charter for Sustainable Tourism in Protected Areas”, the European Charter for Sustainable Tourism (ECST) in Protected Areas – for the five-year period 2021-2025.
The European Charter for Sustainable Tourism represents the culmination of a participatory process, promoted by the Vesuvius National Park Authority, which involved numerous tourism operators in the area, represented in an aggregate form, who met from time to time in a Forum to develop the development strategy and an action plan for the next five years.
A series of aggregated subjects or representatives of operators in the hospitality sector, agricultural companies, development consortia, artisan businesses, major environmental and local associations, trade associations, AIGAE, Gal, Scabec, MAV, Ente Ville Vesuviane and others have preliminarily joined the Forum for sustainable tourism organized by the Park Authority.
With these operators, despite the problems of the pandemic and the restrictions dictated by the Covid-19 emergency, numerous meetings were held, in which the expert opinions of stakeholders were collected regarding the strengths and weaknesses of the territory, the characteristics of tourism in the Vesuvian area and the needs of tourists in a market that varies very rapidly and intensely.
On the basis of this information, the Forum, coordinated by the Park Authority with the support of Federparchi, has collectively identified the key objectives of the Strategy, and has defined the Action Plan, for the candidacy of the Vesuvius National Park for CETS recognition.
The Europarc Evaluation Committee, after a thorough auditing activity, expressed a positive opinion, in which it congratulated and commented favorably on the large number of actions and projects launched and to be launched by the Park Authority and in the park for the coming years, in the field of tourism. The evaluation of the strategies implemented for the relaunch of tourism-related activities and the efforts made to manage tourist flows, in terms of eco-sustainability, even in this emergency phase, was also positive.
The Evaluation Committee also expressed appreciation for the important work carried out by the offices of the Vesuvius National Park Authority and by the experts of the Italian Federation of Parks and Natural Reserves (Federparchi).
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