More initiatives and new values: FiturNext Observatory closes the call for the 2024 Challenge
FiturNext, FITUR's Sustainability Observatory, dedicated to researching good tourism practices in terms of sustainability, closes its 2023 call, which, on this occasion, focuses on territorial revitalisation. Throughout these months, around 300 initiatives have been analysed, 9 of which will become finalists and 3 winners.
New topics for the 2024 Challenge
All the projects have a common objective: to contribute to the demographic, social and economic revitalisation of the territories through tourism. The generation of tourist flows in these areas, with the support of local communities, private initiative and the different public administrations, has a positive impact on the development of territories, turning tourism into a vehicle for the fight against depopulation.
In this sense, some of the themes that encompass the services and values of the initiatives analysed have been defined:
- Management and promotion of depopulated territories: Putting spaces back on the map. Publicise and enhance the value of the different endogenous resources that make the territories worthy of visits.
- Importance of connections: Communication, whether at the level of transport and infrastructures or telecommunications, is essential for the development of the territories. A good network of connections to other points that bring the local community and the different basic services available together, encourage a halt to depopulation through the revitalisation of territories.
- Tourist experiences: Visits to territories that are losing population are often concentrated in rural environments. Here, the proximity of the local population and knowledge of local traditions and cultures make the experience a close and personal one.
Five editions promoting tourism for territorial rebalancing
Throughout the five editions of FiturNext, the Observatory has analysed around 1,300 initiatives that address good sustainable and responsible tourism practices in their destinations.
Furthermore, the journey goes far beyond the research of initiatives and the event at the Madrid International Tourism Trade Fair (FITUR), which will take place between 24 and 28 January. As in each edition, a series of webinars were held with numerous experts and panellists dedicated to tourism as a brake on depopulation. Among the topics discussed during the previous editions are gender equality, accessibility, local economic development or regeneration of the natural environment with a focus on the tourism sector.
Don't miss the new webinar on 27 September from 18:00 to 19:00h, which, together with Ideas for Change, coordinators of FiturNext, will continue to focus on tourism as a vector of positive change.