Empowering Destination Leaders to Deliver Sustainability
Lanzarote, Canary Islands | 14-16 March 2023
14-15 | MASTERCLASSES with Xavier Font and Anna Torres Delgado (University of Surrey & Tourism of Tomorrow Lab)
16 | NECSTour BoD Driving Tourism Climate Action Plans
NECSTouR and SPEL-Turismo Lanzarote are committed to accelerate the transition to a more sustainable tourism governance, in line with both the European Tourism Agenda 2030 and the Glasgow targets.
This 3-days gathering aims to empower destination leaders with the knowledge and practical tools to build the networks necessary for tackling 3 major common challenges: reducing seasonality, measuring tourism carbon footprint and fostering tourism’s climate action. Thanks to the collaboration with recognised experts, Xavier Font and Anna Torres Delgado (University of Surrey), NECSTouR DMOs will consolidate learnings on how to tackle seasonality through sustainable tourism experiences and how to manage sustainability data for making better evidence-informed policy and marketing decisions.
This will also be the core of the NECSTouR-Tourism of Tomorrow Lab activity. With the support of the Travel Foundation Partners, network’s members led by its Board of Directors will pursue the delivery of the NECSTouR climate action plan, triggering inspiration and replication by DMOs.
The Lanzarote session’s legacy will be embedded in the NECSTouR capacity building programme 2023, collectively co-implemented by the network’s Regions: the Tourism of Tomorrow Lab, the Climate Action Plan, and Regenerative Tourism.
FOR WHO
This event is desgined for sustainability managers, data managers and decision/policymakers of Destination Management and Marketing Organisations and Tourism Authorities in Europe (regional & local level).
WHY JOINING US
The Lanzarote gathering is the first of a range of in-person sessions offered to the NECSTouR DMOs as part of the network’s 2030 programme, aligned to the European Year of Skills.
Our focus is to reinforce the capacity of tourism governance to take real action on climate action through collective knowledge development, pilot actions and broader interregional collaboration; aiming to maximise impacts in territories and trigger the necessary transformation of destination models embracing sustainability.
Awarded the Biosphere designation by the United Nations in the 1990s and a pioneer in sustainable tourism development for many decades, Lanzarote is the perfect place for us to assemble once again and in person.
We will maximise the most of our time together, offsetting the journey with a promise to build and share knowledge, create connection and to focus on action, enabling and empowering you to take concrete ideas and actions back to your destinations that will help drive your industry towards a brighter and greener future.
Registrations are open!
The button below will take you to the sign-up form.
All registrations will be carefully checked by NECSTOUR. If accepted, participants will receive a confirmation email with further instructions and arragements. Please don’t book any flights or accommodations until your registration has been confirmed via email.
WHY LANZAROTE
Canary Islands have been experiencing challenges dedicated to insularity, seasonality, climate change and are experts on these universal challenges.
Singular and unique, the beautiful volcanic island of Lanzarote has been an emblem of Sustainable Tourism in Europe since the approval, back in 1991, of the Insular Plan for Spatial Planning, a key instrument which allowed the declassification of more than 200,000 tourist beds and set the basis for a model still standing today.
UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since 1993 and Global Geopark since 2015, Lanzarote has been awarded the ‘Biosphere Responsible Tourism’ certificate and has led the Macaronesian project Ecotur_Azul, a common model for the sustainable use of the territory and the responsible use of its maritime and terrestrial resources.
THE VENUE
Masterclasses and meetings will take place in Jameos del Agua, a mesmerising natural space created inside a volcanic tunnel. Inaugurated in 1968, it is the first of the Art, Culture and Tourism Centers created by artist César Manrique in Lanzarote.
Arguably Manrique’s masterpierce, in Jameos del Agua the artist, painter and sculptor transformed the space into a unique work that represents the maximum expression of his ideology: artistic creation in harmony with the environment and nature.
GETTING HERE
Lanzarote’s International Airport César Manrique (ACE) boasts direct connections to +15 countries and 80 cities in Europe, with +1.000 nonstop flights per week operated by 40 airlines. Click here to check air connectivity.
Information on accommodation coming soon.
Download the Programme
A NOTE TO MEMBERS:
On Thursday, 16th March, a Hybrid Board Meeting will be held. The programme includes:
- Climate Action Panel, an inspiring session for regions allowing benchmarking.
- Session on proposals to investigate concrete implications for revitalising NECSTouRs Knowledge Hub and for implementing our internal Climate Policy.
- Board Meeting, to discuss common affairs.
MEET THE SPEAKERS
Dr. Anna Torres Delgado
Marie Skłodowska Curie Research Fellow at the University of Surrey (UK), in tourism and sustainability in planning and destination management. Her area of expertise is the development of sustainable tourism indicators and policy. Currently, she is leading an EU-funded project about governance of urban tourism by using sustainable tourism indicators to create evidence-informed policy.
Dr. Xavier Font
Professor of Sustainability Marketing at the University of Surrey, UK. He has published widely about sustainable tourism certification, and has consulted on sustainable product development, marketing and communication currently serving as advisor in Prince Harry’s Travalyst coalition of Amadeus, Booking, Google, Expedia, Skyscanner, Travelport, Trip, Tripadvisor and Visa. He has conducted over 200 courses for more than 5,000 businesses on how to market and communicate sustainability. He is currently the Principal Investigator for the University of Surrey for the €23m Interreg project Experience to develop low season sustainable tourism visitor experiences in the UK and France.
Ana Moniche
Master in Science (MSc) in Urban Planning and Environmental Assessment and Management from Oxford Brookes University. A degree in Economics from Universidad de Málaga. She is currently working as Senior Officer of the Statistics and Market Research Area for the regional Government of Andalucía (Spain). She has been working as Research Associate at the University of East Anglia during 2012 and 2013. Her expertise ranges from Tourism Statistics, Surveys implementation and exploitation of results, analysis of tourism demand and supply, impact of cultural or sport events, econometics and time series analysis, tourism indicators system, sustainability and tourism. During the last few years she has focus her carreer on European Projects.
Daniel Iglesias
Industrial Engineer degree (Electronic and automation specialty) from the University of Oviedo. He has more than 15 years of experience in innovation projects related to data analysis and Big Data technologies. He has worked in different sectors, such as IT, automotive, retail, e-health, and tourism. In addition, Daniel spent seven years as Director of Operations in the Center for Tourist Innovation of Andalusia, where he provided advice to tourism companies about using new technologies and analyzing information for decision-making and founded the Big Data and tourism information analysis unit. Currently, he is working at Tourism of Tomorrow Lab, working with destinations to analyze their data to help them to be more sustainable.
«Empowering Destination Leader to Deliver Sustainability» is an event organised by NECSTouR and Turismo Lanzarote.
Masterclasses delivered by Xavier Font and Anna Torres Delgado (University of Surrey & Tourism of Tomorrow Lab)
In collaboration with: 
SUSTAINABILITY OF THE EVENT
NECSTouR has been a signatory of the Glasgow Declaration and simultaneously published its Climate Action Plan, whose objectives are tackled in this event.
- Objective 1 – to support members to deliver climate action and develop Climate Action Plan and promote members’ good practices
- Objective 3 – to enable NECSTouR to measure, reduce and mitigate organisational emissions
This event is a frontrunner in delivering Climate Action in tourism, being made possible by the supervision of a local environmental consultancy company. A Sustainability Plan is being developed that allows for minimising the negative environmental impacts and encourages positive impacts and citizen participation.
The event will showcase that through concrete measures, the carbon footprint is to be identified, evaluated, and reduced to the minimum.
NECSTouR is the Network of European Regions for Sustainable and Competitive Tourism. Based in Brussels, it develops Interregional Projects to improve Tourism Governance in Europe. Since 2007 it has undertaken a unique journey, representing today more than 70 organisations around Europe and connecting Regional Tourism Governance with European levels of government, EU financial instruments, Academic Organisations (Universities and Research Institutes) and Private Sector (Representatives of Tourism Enterprises, Associations, and Networks).
New department of NECSTouR, based in the Andalucía Lab, that puts into action the networks’ commitment to supporting regional destination managers in delivering effective decision-making based on systematic tourism sound measurement. We accompany destinations along their journey in becoming data-driven organizations, offering an international collaborative ecosystem where DMO’s professionals and data scientists solve daily tourism-measurement-related challenges hand-in-hand for then take specific actions in better measuring for policy making.
Turismo Lanzarote (Sociedad de Promoción Exterior de Lanzarote – SPEL) is the organ responsible for the tourism promotion of Lanzarote. Created in 2006 as a mixed commercial entity, its corporate purposes are the promotion, development and enhancement of economic activities, especially tourism, which contributes to boosting the economic development of the island of Lanzarote. It also manages the study, research, documentation, information and dissemination of the image of Lanzarote.