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 closed
We look forward to seeing you in Lanzarote!
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 +600 nonstop flights per week operated by 40 airlines. Click here to check air connectivity.
We kindly ask you to book flights labelled with lower emissions. Please consult tools such as ‘Google Flights’ to view the lower emission labels.
This event is free of participation fee. Masterclasses, study trips, full programme, transportation during the event (including transfers from/to airport), coffee breaks and daily lunches are kindly covered by SPEL-Turismo Lanzarote.
We have arranged special rates in two hotels for everyone attending the event. You can book your room and provide us with your flights details in the registration website below.
PROGRAM
Tuesday | 14th MARCH 2023
09:00 – 14:00 h
MASTERCLASS by Professor Xavier Font, Surrey University
How to design sustainable tourism experiences to reduce your seasonality
We will learn…
- How products make way for experiences
- To identify complementary markets, diversify markets, and how to respond to different needs
- To identify low-season resources
- To design innovative experiences
- To adapt your marketing efforts to different value, you gain from different customers
15:00 – 18:00 h
STUDY TRIPS by SPEL – Turismo Lanzarote
La Molina de Lanzarote
Dating from 1870, La Molina de San Bartolomé is perhaps the last operating mill in Lanzarote, still producing the famous “gofio”, a flour from mixed roasted grains that has been a central product in Canarian cooking for centuries. Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC), La Molina is a window into the economic and cultural history Lanzarote.
Finca Testeina - La Geria
La Geria is a vineyard landscape like no other in the world. After the volcanic eruptions of the 18th century, peasants in the island had to adapt their cultivation methods to the environment. This land produces first-rate volcanic Malvasía wines, obtained with the same methods that 200 years ago.
In the middle of this unique scenery lays Finca Testeina, a winery and an emblematic house from the 16th century, where we will meet around a glass of its eco-wine to talk about tradition, identity and resilience.
We will learn…
- About Lanzarote’s vision of sustainable tourism, based upon the “Culture of Limits” and balanced interactions between nature & human beings
- How to use heritage and cultural uses as a tool for qualifying tourist experiences
- How knowledge on the environment can help destination to adapt and reivent themselves
Wednesday | 15th MARCH 2023
09:00 – 13:00 h
MASTERCLASS by Anna Torres Delgado & Tourism of Tomorrow Lab
How to use sustainability data to inform policy decisions
We will learn…
- Main challenges when trying to define and use a set of sustainable indicators
- Cost-free ways of estimating carbon footprint for you destinations’ markets
- To identify the most attractive markets for your destination based on benefits (expenditure) and costs (carbon footprints)
- To prepare you action list to improve your destinations’ expenditure/ carbon footprint balance
- To make sense of online data sources to take decision regarding sustainability
- Tools, frameworks and initiatives for measure sustainability used by selected destinations
15:00 – 18:00 h
WORKSHOP with the Travel Foundation
Study Case: Lanzarote + Club La Santa
Envisioning 2030 : Designing a plan compliant with the Fit for 55 strategy
We will learn…
- How a thriving, decarbonising tourism sector could look like in 2030 and 2050 thanks to the research outcomes of the ‘Envisioning Tourism in 2030’ report by Paul Peters and the Travel Foundation.
- Zero-carbon plans in tourist acommodation and destinations
- How can your DMO design a plan compliant with the Fit for 55 strategy
Thursday | 16th MARCH 2023
09:00 – 13:00 h OPENING BOARD by Authorites
09:45 – 13:45 h PANELS by participants DMOs and NECSTouR. Moderated by the Travel Foundation
Delivering Tourism Climate Action Plans
We will …
- Benchmark with our peers on how to design change-making Tourism Climate Action Plans.
- Discover how NECSTouR is planning to support you in delivering Climate Action through a renewed Knowledge Hub designed to your needs and wishes.
14:00 – 16:00 h NECSTouR BOARD Board Meeting Members only
MEET THE SPEAKERS
Dr. Anna Torres Delgado
University of Surrey
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
University of Surrey
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
Tourism of Tomorrow Lab
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
Tourism of Tomorrow Lab
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.
Graeme Jackson
the Travel Foundation
Head of Strategic Partnerships for leading global tourism NGO, the Travel Foundation, focusing on collective efforts that bring tourism stakeholders together to address critical challenges and opportunities around climate and equity – including the launch in 2021 of the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism, alongside the UN World Tourism Organisation, UN Environment and Visit Scotland, at COP26 in Glasgow. A trained journalist, Graeme joined the Travel Foundation team in 2011, following a decade in the fields of Public Relations and marketing.
Paul Peeters
the Travel Foundation
Professor at the Centre for Sustainability, Tourism and Transport (CSTT) of Breda University of Applied Sciences since 2002. Before that, he worked as an aircraft designer at Fokker, and as a researcher in the field of wind energy, environment and transport as an independent researcher. His current work and publications cover a wide range of topics, including tourism and climate change scenarios, systemic approaches to tourism modelling, aviation and transport technology, transport mode choice in tourism, policy making, climate mitigation policies and technological, sociological and economic solutions in the field of tourism transport.
«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.
Leading university located within the Surrey town of Guildford (UK), Surrey has a world-class profile and a leading reputation in teaching and research. It offers students a diverse range of subject areas and represents a global community of ideas and people dedicated to life-changing education and research. It provides exceptional teaching and practical learning to inspire and empower students for personal and professional success.
NECSTouR department based in the Andalucía Lab that supports regional destination managers in delivering effective decision-making based on systematic tourism sound measurement. We accompany destinations along their journey with data, offering an international collaborative ecosystem where DMO’s professionals and data scientists solve daily tourism-measurement-related challenges hand-in-hand and use better measuring for its policy making.
The Travel Foundation is a leading international sustainable tourism organisation dedicated to ensuring that tourism has a positive impact on destination communities. It works with governments, community groups and tourism businesses for fairer, climate-positive tourism. It aims to create a better future for tourism destinations, accelerating change towards a more balanced tourism model through advocacy, training, demonstrating good practice, and enabling collaboration between the many tourism stakeholde
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).
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.
