After an evolution of the definition and the planning, here a new presentation of the project, as imagined in February 2009:

"Can we conciliate tourism and environmental protection? And, more precisely, with coast protection? From which European regions can the Basque Country take an example (best practice)? And what about the situation in Basque Country? Who are the protagonists of such a combination between tourism and environment? Can the key issues be an implication of cross-border cooperation?"

All these questions are part of our Group Project, in the following a brief description...

SEA, TERRITORIES AND PEOPLE

For a sustainable tourism around the Basque coastline

Our goal: To create, in an innovative way, links between protagonists of the tourism sector and the public sector, French as well as Spanish.

Objective: To associate the problem of sustainable development with the question of the tourism on the Basque coast.

Many tourists are attracted by the Basque Country, however, they want to spend their holidays and discover the region on both sides of the border. Due to this it seems essential that the local protagonists take this situation into account and work together and share benefits of this cooperation mutually.

Our vision is to initiate the necessary cooperation between the French and Spanish parts of the Basque Country, and that this cooperation becomes more important that the competitive aspect of tourism, which will be more damaging than advantageous for the local tourism protagonists in the region.

If we take also into consideration that the concept of "sustainable tourism", which is nowadays not only a phenomenon of the moment, but a real necessity of a kind of progress that conciliates reasonable economic development, a sensible handling of natural and environmental resources and the respect for people and societies, the real problem of tourism in the Basque Country has to be regarded in a long-term context.

Who nowadays can continue denying that this is a major problem for the Basque Country?

Our actions:

This year, we have the chance to integrate our project within the National Week of Sustainable Development, which will take place from April 1st to 7th. With our project, we will hence be in the centre of current topics...

SEMINAR

Our idea is to create an idea-workshop, which will take place April 6th this year, within the framework of a seminar, at the location of our Campus de la Nive, in Bayonne.

The construction of a network of professionals of both sides of the border, a cooperation work between public services, will make it possible to establish productive considerations around the examples of "best practices" that already exist in some regions of Europe having proved their efficiency, and finally lead to precise actions.

Parallel to these considerations between protagonists of local tourism and environmental protection, we wish communicate the initiatives concerning sustainable tourism that have been achieved so far, with the help of this website, which includes our research work as well as our project partners.

As a matter of fact, cross-border cooperation is already established for some aspects, like in the health sector, for transport, etc., whereas the tourism sector is still perceived as a field in which cooperation is a very delicate aspect due to its traditionally competitive environment. Yet, the environmental aspect of tourism cannot be denied any longer and will surely come back as a negative aspect in a long term. It is hence necessary to o consider this in a common and positive way and not as a constraint. There is still a lot to do in order to create a certain conscience for these aspects. And this is the interest of our seminar in April.

See also : Programme for the 6th and 7th of April

PHOTO CONTEST AND EXPOSITION

With the goal to sensitise the public for these problems, we are going to organize a photo contest, in order to give everybody the chance to express his or her vision of tourism or environmental problems.

This cross-border photo contest will result in an exposition of the photos selected by the jury and allows those interested or curious in the topic to assist the events we organize.

ECO-TOUR

On April 7th 2009, the seminar will be followed by an "Eco-tour". The concept is to visit the places that we have selected for their exemplary environmental actions and their special geographical situation