Tourism and sustainability in european coastal areas Erasmus Project

Project Title

Tourism and sustainability in european coastal areas

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Environment and climate change; Transport and mobility; International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation

Project Summary

In light of the increasing negative impacts of tourism on European coastal areas, environment and sustainability have become a matter of considerable importance in modern-day society. Initiatives such as Fridays for future indicate that even the youth among Europe recognizes this a relevant topic. Thus, our project Tourism and Sustainability in European Coastal Areas shall draw attention to the significance of creating a new kind of tourism, namely one that suits today’s requirements of environmental and touristic sustainability to counteract the negative consequences of the growing (mass) tourism. Our plan is to raise awareness among our students about the unfavourable repercussions of “traditional” tourism to a country’s local nature, heritage and environment, explaining the causes of it (competition in the international hotel industries) and demonstrating possibilities to enhance a sustainable way of tourism. This way our students are required to invent a kind of tourism that creates a positive impact on the inhabitants, environment, culture and economy, while leaving only a minimal footprint on the surrounding ecosystem and respecting local traditions, natural resources and residents. The matter of sustainability is the most crucial aspect of our work. As the topic is quite ambitious and demanding the participating students should be aged between 16 and 19, interested in European topics and well-grounded in the English language (project language) to be able to plan and put into practice such a sophisticated project. To ensure a wide-ranging overview of the situation in Europe as a whole, our campaign will be realized with groups of about 20 students and 2 teachers from 6 different European countries (Croatia, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain). The schools taking part in the programme are all located in a touristic European coastal area, either on an island or peninsula. All of them are affected directly or indirectly by (seasonal) tourism, hence the topic of our project is relevant to all those present at the educational institutions. The programme we devised will include 6 project meetings (one in each country) and several project related activities in the periods in between the on-site presences. Assuming the main issues during the project meetings will be tourism and sustainability and even though some activities will be part of every meeting (surveys on touristic behaviour among students, locals, tourists and people working in touristic sectors), we would like to determine divergent priorities and key aspects for each meeting. Starting with an analysis of tourism (Which areas does it affect and to what extent does it work successfully? What are potential beneficial or negative side effects of tourism?) we will later on examine various aspects of these areas that may have an effect on the development of tourism, focusing alternately on nature, history, cultural heritage, inhabitants and the touristic behaviour of every individual. We will contrast the popular form of all-inclusive tourism to an eco-friendlier kind of tourism, taking into account economical aspects such as competitiveness and also considering cruise tourism. For this purpose, we will contact the UNESCO, NGO’s, local politicians, hotel managers, tourists and locals to get access to all different angles. We would like to investigate the role of all participants in the tourism sector as well as the role of our students themselves regarding the future development of tourism and the means each group can possibly use to make an indispensable contribution to more sustainability. Through the usage of surveys, interviews, personal diaries, photos and video recordings, we will be able to record our findings in our planned final products, namely a book containing all the analysed surveys, conclusions deduced from the realised interviews and diary entries, themed material for future classes, short films on the advantages and disadvantages of tourism in European coastal areas also including advice for the future, brochures on ways of achieving a more sustainable tourism in the investigated areas, as well as a website and a TwinSpace where all the final products and the partial results will be available to the public. At the end of the project, we hope to not only have promoted our student’s key competences (methodological, intercultural, linguistic) and their awareness for the increasing need of sustainability, but also have made a major contribution to reach a wider audience (all people participating in the school communities as well as many inhabitants of the corresponding regions) and to win them over to a more sustainable tourism. Therefore, we will also conduct a holiday competition among the participating students and a public presentation. If our students and other residents changed their views on tourism and realised that everyone can contribute to a more sustainable tourism, we would have achieved all of our aims.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 181062 Eur

Project Coordinator

Gymnasium Nordenham & Country: DE

Project Partners

• IES Inca
• Escola Básica e Secundária com P/E da Calheta
• Srednja skola Bol
• Istituto di Istruzione Superiore “Giovanni Verga”
• 4o GEL RETHYMNOU