MEDITERRANEAN ACTION PLAN

Rapport de l’Atelier sur le tourisme et le développement durable en Méditerranée
Antaly (Turquie), 17, 18 & 19 septembre 1998
from a sectoral approach to pollution control to integrated coastal zone planning
and management as the key tool through which solutions are being sought.
According to the above, the action “Development of Mediterranean Tourism
Harmonised with the Environment” is being implemented since 1985 with active
participation of 14 Mediterranean countries. It is based on four major goals:
1. Integrated planning of development and management of the Mediterranean
basin;
2. Pollution monitoring and research programme for the Mediterranean basin;
3. Development of relevant legislation; and
4. Institutional and financial framework.
The action included a series of seminars and expert meetings organised on the
basis of national reports and case studies of participating countries (1986-1989),
with a result in the synthesis of national reports and case studies as well as in the
preparation of “Guidelines for an Environmental Approach to the Planning and
Management of Tourism in Mediterranean Coastal zones” and a proposal of the
methodology of carrying capacity assessment (CCA) in tourism. After that proposal
had been presented and discussed at a workshop organised in 1990 by UNEP
Industry and Environment Office and the World Tourism organisation, the CCA
studies for Brijuni archipelago and island of Vis in Croatia were prepared, and
shortly after, a similar study for the central-eastern part of the island of Rhodes in
Greece. Those studies were made between 1990-1992 and were favourably received
by the local and central authorities.
On the basis of the above mentioned reports and other experience obtained through
the work on the whole project “Development of Mediterranean Tourism
Harmonised with the Environment”, a team of experts have prepared the
“Guidelines for Carrying Capacity Assessment for Tourism in Mediterranean
Coastal Areas”. After review, the Guidelines were discussed and amended in an
expert meeting in Split in June 1995 and finally adopted at the regional Workshop
in Split in January 1997. At this moment, one study of CCA is almost finished - the
area of Marsa Matrouh-Fuka in Egypt - and the one is in process of preparation,
but the work is stopped due to a political situation – the area of Lalzi Bay in
Albania. Both studies are being prepared according to the Guidelines, in order to
test it in praxis. As a new moment in practical work, both CCA studies involve GIS
as a tool for efficient data analysis and synthesis, as well as a tool for making final
planning proposals.
The “Guidelines for Carrying Capacity Assessment for Tourism in Mediterranean
Coastal Areas” depart from the multifaced nature of tourism, which is always
dependent of the given time and space, type and size of the tourist attractions, type
and level of tourism development, relationships between macro- and micro- tourism
policies, and the preferences of local population. Its principal objective is to provide
a comprehensive methodological and procedural framework which to contribute to
a full understanding of the carrying capacity concept in the field of tourism, to its
analysis and assessment and to its efficient application within integrated
management of coastal areas. Since one of the main conclusions of the Guidelines
is that the interests of the public sector and the enterpreneurs are identical on the
long run, it can be claimed that the inclusion of CCA in the process of integrated
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Plan Bleu