Sustainable Tourism Plan for Baix Empordà

The Regional Council of Baix Empordà (Consell Comarcal del Baix Empordà) requested a consulting service to develop a Sustainable Tourism Plan for the region. The aim of this plan was to position Baix Empordà as a destination that, beyond its natural, cultural and heritage attractions, was committed to the growth of tourist activity with a clear commitment to sustainable principles. At the same time, it also values cooperation to strengthen synergies and strategic alliances that allow for better governance between all tourism stakeholders in the territory, where the Regional Council is committed to lead, together with the tourism stakeholders in the territory, in a consensual and participatory manner, the implementation and monitoring of this plan.  

Our consulting team was responsible for directing, coordinating and executing the tasks of this process, as well as contributing to stimulating and shaping this network of actors cooperating to achieve the lines of action in terms of tourism sustainability for the territory.

The specific objectives of this plan were, from the beginning, to facilitate:

• The construction of an environment in which sustainable tourism management thrives in the region.
• The assurance of internal and external management practices aligned with the best examples of international tourism sustainability standards.
• The encouragement of visits with more added value by offering visitors an easy way to determine where the genuine and authentic tourism experiences are.
• The integration into a global network of related tourism destinations that are committed to excellence in sustainable tourism management as well as learning from the best tourism management practices.

The development of this Sustainable Tourism Plan was carried out over a period of six months, and the working method consisted of structuring the natural process of strategic reflection in four stages: a first analytical and activation stage, based on the primary and secondary research of destination information and the activation of participatory dynamics from the tourism actors; a second stage where it was possible to define the starting point in terms of tourism sustainability of the destination based on the results obtained in the previous phase, through a shared diagnosis; thirdly, a strategic stage to reflect and define the shared long-term tourism vision of the territory and the framework objectives necessary for the construction of a new tourism development model aligned with sustainability; finally, an operational stage where the concrete actions to be implemented in the three-year period 2023-2025 were established, through the co-responsibility of the different tourism agents and indicators necessary to ensure the continuity of the initiatives proposed.  

Throughout the whole process, the maximum participation of the public-private tourism ecosystem of the region was ensured through different mechanisms and spaces for collaboration and opinion. In total, we carried out three public-private participative workshops, 107 opinion surveys of municipal tourism managers and tourism entrepreneurs and 20 in-depth interviews with experts related to the subject of this project.

The development of this Sustainable Tourism Plan for the Baix Empordà region would not have been possible without all the public and private actors who were involved. Under the leadership of the Consell Comarcal del Baix Empordà and the technical assistance of Pax#, different mechanisms for participation and co-creation of the plan have been activated involving a total of approximately 180 actors.  

This has been a rewarding, exciting and hopeful process for the future of tourism sustainability, which is getting closer to become a reality in the tourism management of destinations worldwide. Without a doubt, this project has been an example that joint work is the key to the future of planning and managing tourism destinations, and that the union has no limits when achieving common goals.