The European Charter for Sustainable Tourism (ECST) is a voluntary agreement and practical tool that parks can use to implement sustainable tourism principles. It recognizes parks' work in this area through an award process. Over 100 parks across Europe have received the ECST, with requirements including establishing a sustainable tourism forum and developing a diagnostic, strategy, and action plan. The Charter also recognizes sustainable tourism partners like local businesses. It has been successful in involving over 6,000 stakeholders and recognizing over 400 partner businesses. Ongoing work includes expanding the Charter to recognize travel agencies and updating processes based on other standards.

1. The European Charter for
Sustainable Tourism
“Leadership model and management skills
for the implementation of the
European Charter for Sustainable Tourism
in Protected Areas”
European Summer School
11th July 2013 Napoli
Paulo Castro, EUROPARC Council member

2. The Charter is not …
× …a financial mechanism;
× …a brand from the European Union;
× …a certification scheme.

3. The Charter is …
 …a voluntary agreement;
 …a practical tool to implement principles of sustainable
tourism;
 …a recognition/award by EUROPARC of the work done in
the territory by its stakeholders;

4. The Charter is…
Parco C
Parco C
Park B
Park B
Parque A
Parque A

5. A brief story about the ECST
1991 Working Group on Sustainable Tourism EUROPARC
1993
1995
“Loving them to death – Sustainable Tourism in
Europe's Nature and National Parks”
Development of the Charter methodology (LIFE
project with the French Federation of RNP)
2001 First 7 PA’s with ECST
2008/9 ECST Part II and the first Charter Partners

6. Requirements of the ESCT
Sustainable
Tourism
Forum
Project
Team
Applicant
organization
• Park administration that coordinates all process;
• Inter-institutional and multidisciplinary team that
integrates the key entities of the area;
• Technical support to all application process;
• Involving all the interested local stakeholders;
• Validates the territory options at the different
stages of the ECST.
Charter area
• Area with legal status of nature conservation (PA,
N2000, Geopark, etc. or their combinations);

7. Charter area
Charter Area
PA
Communities/municipalities

8. Sustainable Tourism Forum
SUSTAINABLE
TOURISM
FORUM
Culture
Information +
Education
Local economy Transport
Sport +
Leisure
Food +
Accommodation
Local elected
Nature +
Landscape

9. Create the Forum
(permanent and
plurinstitutional)
Create the project
team
Guarantee contact
with local
stakeholders in every
step of the Charter
Define the Charter
area
Develop a
diagnostic of the
Charter area
Define a strategy
for the sustainable
tourism
development
Elaborate an Action
Plan
Sign the Charter as
an engagement
between all
stakeholders
Charter Methodology

10. ECST application dossier
1.Application;
2.Diagnostic of the territory;
3.Sustainable Tourism Strategy and Goals for the Charter
Area;
4.Action Plan for Sustainable Tourism Development (5 years);
5. Other documents.

11. Charter Structure
PART I
PART II
PART III
Sustainable Tourism for PA’s
Sustainable Tourism for tourism businesses
Sustainable Tourism for tour operators travel
agencies (2013/14)

12. 107 ECST in 13 countries (2012)
38 Spain
24 France
13 Italy
13 UK
5 Portugal
4 Germany
2 Finland
1 Denmark
1 Latvia
1 Lithuania
1 Netherlands
1 Norway
1 Slovakia

13. ECST – Part II
• Official text approved in 2008;
• Encourages the engagement of tourism businesses and
recognizes them as Charter Partners;
• Global commitments and methodology defined by
EUROPARC and its Sections and locally by each PA;
• Development of an Action Plan of 3 years;
• “Partnership agreement” and “Partner Certificate”.

14. United Kingdom: 35
France: 57
Spain: 174
How many Charter partners in 2011?
266 Charter Partners

15. Main achievements of Charter
• Successful implementation of the 10 principles of the
Charter for over twelve years
• Involvement of over 6.000 private and public entities,
businesses and organizations in 107 Sustainable
Tourism Forums
• Recognition of the Charter Partner Status to more
than 400 tourism business actively involved in
Charter protected areas in Sp, Fr and UK
• Charter Network and joint international project
activities
• External verifiers and an independent Charter
Evaluation Committee

17. Lessons to be learned #1
• Be flexible and adaptative when it comes to
Tourism and Protected Areas all over
Europe. Too much complex and diverse
• Have a simple general text with major rules
and then let local level be more specific
• This is not about money, it’s about working
together and build up a common concept of
STD. Money will come after in an easier
way

18. Lessons to be learned #2
• You need stakeholders participation, local
politics involvement and technical
professionalism otherwise you just get
enthusiastic collective …. frustration!
• You need more technical support at local
level animating and coordinating than in the
upper level of the network. It’s a subsidiarity
principle
• You might start with a Nature Conservation
issue but you have to end up with a Tourism
and Local development solution

19. Lessons to be learned #3
• Networks sometimes work based in
reasons we don’t understand nor control.
“Bad and good” may happen at the same
time. Take an advantage of that instead of
being a “control freak”
• Destinations working together take longer
to become a STD than just award tourism
businesses individually, but you go much
further
• This is a journey and an on going process
that never stops!

20. Aims for near future #1
• By 2013 we will have the Charter Part
III in order to recognize Travel
Agencies in the Charter process
• By 2014 we will update and upgrade
our official texts and templates for new
Charter applications in 2015 taking
into consideration the outputs of the
GSTC, ETIS and ETLS

21. Aims for near future #2
• To establish a common platform of
mutual recognition with other awarding
schemes for STD based in Protected
Areas in order we can apply together
for funding in promotion and marketing
with joint international projects

22. Links of interest
• EUROPARC Federation (www.europarc.org)
• The European Charter for Sustainable Tourism in Protected
Areas (www.european-charter.org)

23. European Charter for Sustainable
Tourism
Thank you for your attention…
E p.castro@europarc.org
S www.europarc.org
T (+351) 926227623
Paulo Castro
EUROPARC Federation
Some of the photos used are propriety of the EUROPARC Federation.