HELLENIC REPUBLIC ADRIATIC AND IONIAN INITIATIVE

MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS CHAIRMANSHIP OF THE HELLENIC REPUBLIC

JUNE 2016-MAY 2017

ROUND TABLE ON SUSTAINABLE TOURISM AND CULTURE

OF THE ADRIATIC & IONIAN INITIATIVE (AII)

Athens, Greece, 28 March 2017

Theme: Leveraging the cultural heritage of the Adriatic and Ionian Region for the promotion of
sustainable tourism development

REPORT

The AII Round Table on Sustainable Tourism and Culture was held in Athens, Greece, on 28 March
2017, organized by the AII Hellenic Chairmanship in cooperation with the Hellenic Ministry of
Tourism. The meeting was moderated by Mr. Spyridon Parthenis, EUSAIR National Representative
for Pillar IV (Sustainable Tourism) from the Hellenic Ministry of Tourism. The Round Table focused
on the perspectives for the development of the tourism sector in the Adriatic-Ionian Sea Basin,
with the sharing of best practices and projects, pertaining to cultural routes and cultural heritage
as a generator for sustainable development. The meeting was attended by representatives of the
civil society and the private sector as well as public authorities from Croatia, Greece, Serbia and
Slovenia.

Opening remarks
Amb. Niki-Ekaterini Koutrakou, Director of B2 Directorate for Economic Relations with SE
Europe, CIS and the BSEC countries, from the Hellenic Ministry of Foreign Affairs, made the
welcome remarks on behalf of the Hellenic AII Chairmanship, underlining how the present Round
Table can contribute to the promotion and achievement of the objectives set by EUSAIR, thus
offering an added value to the macro-region. She also reminded participants about the
organization of the 2nd EUSAIR Forum to be held in Ioannina, Greece (11-12 May 2017).
Mr. Parthenis welcomed the invited speakers by underlining the significant role of regional
authorities, universities and research centers and other stakeholders in exchanging information,
experience, know-how and best practices and stressed out that the role of the AII Round Tables is
to support the work of the EUSAIR Pillars by providing opinions or recommendations on specific
topics and actions.
In his introductory remarks, Amb. Fabio Pigliapoco, AII Secretary General, thanked the
Hellenic AII Presidency and the Hellenic Ministry of Tourism for the organization of the RT and
stressed out that 2017 will be an important year for the regional cooperation within the Adriatic
and Ionian Region. He noted that over the last two years, the AII has been trying to synchronize its
intergovernmental activities with EUSAIR in order to enhance the effectiveness of its actions. He
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MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS CHAIRMANSHIP OF THE HELLENIC REPUBLIC
JUNE 2016-MAY 2017

also underlined that the overhaul of the AII Roundtables, adopted in 2015, allows henceforth to
better align the work of the Round Tables with the priorities and objectives of the EUSAIR
Thematic Steering Groups. The innovation introduced in the functioning of the Round Tables is the
participation of representatives of the civil society, while the Agreed Minutes of the Round Tables
are subsequently forwarded to the four EUSAIR Thematic Steering Groups so that they can be
used as useful tools for the achievement of the EUSAIR objectives. To this end, the AII Permanent
Secretariat funds the travel and accommodation expenses of the civil society representatives, in
order to encourage them to participate in the meetings of the AII Round Tables. Finally, he urged
the participants to enhance the cooperation and the information exchange between the national
representatives of the AII countries.

Session 1: Sustainable tourism development and cultural heritage management

Tourism and cultural sectors are inextricably connected as modern travelers seek to
explore the wealth of the cultural heritage all over the world and experience other cultures and
ways of life. Thus, sustainable destination management and sustainable cultural heritage
management are closely related. The moderator opened the session and gave the floor to the fisrt
speaker.
Dr. Maria Papadopoulou, Associate Professor at the School of Rural and Surveying
Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens, gave a presentation entitled:
Perspectives for the Development of the Tourist Sector SIM4NEXUS: Towards a Sustainable
Economy and an Effective Use of Resources. This presentation focused on the exploration of
possible future perspectives for the development of the Greek tourism sector under the
framework of the SIM4NEXUS project and its expected outcomes. SIM4NEXUS (Sustainable
Integrated Management for the NEXUS of water-land-food-energy-climate for a resource-efficient
Europe) project is funded by the European Commission (HORIZON 2020) and aims at the
development of a serious game, a cloud-based tool enabling policy assessment and inspection of
impacts and pressures that possible scenarios could exert on natural resources. In this context,
future scenarios and policies are tested on the basis of the sustainable and effective management
of water, land, energy, food and climate as well as the interlinkages among these components.
Mr. Igor Kovaevi, CEO of the Serbian Convention Bureau and Teaching Assistant at the
Faculty of Economics of the University of Belgrade took the floor. He referred to the experiences
and lessons learnt from the projects Roman Emperors and Danube Wine Route, carried out by
the Danube Competence Center (DCC). He pointed out that the concept of sustainability should
focus on the local communitys well-being and economic welfare. He added that the concept of
cultural routes goes beyond the attractions and includes intangible and tangible cultural
resources. He added that the number of travelers visiting a destination in terms of cultural
heritage is quite low and that they are not active visitors. He said that Serbia has completed a very
important cultural route, the Route of the Roman Emperors, a ten-year long-term plan, which has
contributed substantially to the promotion of the cultural wealth along the route. Moreover, he
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JUNE 2016-MAY 2017

said that the country has invested in creating wine tourism itineraries (Danube Wine Route) and
Monastery Routes, which includes accommodation in monasteries. He noted that the most crucial
point is the administration of the routes, i.e. which administrative body (public or private) will be
responsible for their overall and efficient management. He underlined that there is not an
umbrella brand which would give more visibility to the routes and that there is a shortage of
qualified, competent staff with management skills who could contribute to increased revenues
from tourism, since ultimately the goal is that visitors spend more time and money all year round.
He stressed out that often people who are employed in cultural heritage sites are not sufficiently
trained and thus are not always able to interpret the cultural heritage which they present to the
public and that they are not aware of the modern tourists needs. He added that a second
important element is the traveler's experience and that the main objective is to maximize the
visitors experience which can be achieved by using innovative technology in the visitor
information centers (e.g. using 3D virtual environment) and by creating a narrative story telling. He
stressed out that constant efforts should be made in order to reconcile the different views and
clashes arising between the people involved in the culture sector on the one hand, and the
tourism professionals on the other hand, or between the environment conservationists and the
business people, on how cultural heritage monuments and sites should be conserved, managed
and promoted. He noted that in Serbia, most cultural sites are under state public management
and for this reason the participation of the private sector should be reinforced, i.e. people with
increased administrative capacities. He stressed out the lack of market understanding by the
public sector and underlined that after the state funding has been completed, the cultural sites
should continue to be able to be competitive, self-sustained and attract more and more visitors.
Mr. Nikolas Patsavos, Architect and Adjunct Lecturer at the School of Architecture of the
Technical University of Crete and InHeriT Project Manager, took the floor afterwards. The title of
his presentation was: Cultural Heritage as a Generator of Sustainable Development: from global
concepts and practices to local dynamics and potentialities. InHeriT is a joint interdisciplinary
ERASMUS+ project aiming to increase public awareness on the economic value of heritage and its
crucial role in generating regional and local development. Having started with an international
conference in May 2016 in Athens intending to collect relative international expertise and best
practices, InHeriT pursued a series of three horizontal studies in Chania and Messinia (Greece) and
in Paphos (Cyprus) in order to map out the local cultural heritage dynamics as well as the public
understanding of the developmental potential entailed. The presentation highlighted the need for
a new sustainable development strategy investing in cultural heritage. The speaker underlined
that during the field research a lack of social awareness and social initiatives was found out while
he stressed out that the majority of the tourists who were surveyed in the above destinations did
not know about the local history and culture of the place they visited.
Afterwards, the floor was given, through Skype conference, to Ms. Cinzia De Marzo, DG REGIO
external expert for EUSAIR Pillar IV. She briefly presented the preliminary findings of the Report
she has been working on, concerning the analysis of the eight EUSAIR national tourism strategies
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JUNE 2016-MAY 2017

and the identification of the main tourism priorities, which are common for all countries (first
part). The second part will be a needs analysis based on these common priorities versus the
EUSAIR Action Plan while the third part will propose a list of relevant and well measurable mid-
term result indicators and targets. She noted that the main purpose of the Report is to explore the
key priorities of policy areas such as tourism promotion, tourism education, sustainable
development and whether these are compatible with the priorities set out by the Thematic
Steering Group of the EUSAIR Pillar IV. She said that the common priorities detected by the
national tourism strategies are the following ones:
1. Creation of thematic cultural routes
2. Improvement of education and training in the professional tourism sector
3. Extension of the tourism season
4. Creation of clusters and communication networks
She pointed out that there is a great variation in terms of capacity building at administrative level
between the 4 EU countries and the 4 IPA countries. She also referred to the two meetings she
had in order to assess the regional tourism strategies for Italy and Greece. The first one took place
in Bari, Italy, on 3 March 2017 and the second one in Tripolis, Greece, on 16 March 2017. During
these meetings, some specific common projects and/or joint actions proposals were made by the
participating Italian and Greek regions. She suggested that all EUSAIR countries should use
common methods and tools for the measurement and monitoring of sustainable development.
She concluded that this report/analysis should be considered as a live document as it is still in
progress and that the findings and the executive summary should be agreed with the TSG-4
members, during the 6th TSG-4 meeting, to be held in Zagreb on 26 April 2017.
Then the floor was given to Mr. Damian Gapari, Director of NaNovo Institute for spatial
culture development. The topic of his presentation was Ljubljanica River: A cultural monument of
national importance. He stressed out that due to the number of findings, their quality and their
scientific expressiveness, the Ljubljanica River is one of the most important and at the same time
one of the most endangered archaeological sites in Slovenia. The integration of the Ljubljanica
River as the former vital trade and traffic artery into the rich cultural landscape of the Ljubljana
Marshes basin is a unique phenomenon, which goes well beyond national borders due to its
uncommon intactness and, consequently, the enrichment of the entire south-eastern Alpine
cultural area. The main objective of the project was to solve the most acute threat to the unique
monument, threatened due to its location, degree of degradation and type of material. He noted
that the erosion was threatening two ancient Roman vessels and added that that both are
extremely rare residues of badly deteriorated materials - archaeological waterlogged wood. In
case of their destruction the damage would be priceless. Their dimensions and the necessary
underwater interventions presented a major challenge. He underlined that great attention was
placed on the accessibility of the cultural and natural heritage to a large audience, the networking
within an extended area and the revitalisation of deteriorated areas. He added that these areas
bear an additional potential for expansion in terms of tourism, creative businesses, services sector,
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JUNE 2016-MAY 2017

dedicated programs for marginal and vulnerable groups, educational contents for both the young
and the elderly, revival of traditional crafts and intangible heritage, research and development. He
stressed out that providing an improved prospective of economic development and new
employments shall lead to a considerably improved level of protection and preservation of the
cultural monument for future generations.
Mr. Evangelos Karachalios, Planning Engineer, Scientific Adviser to the Vice Governor of
Ilia, from the Region of Western Greece, took the floor. His presentation was entitled: Integrated
Territorial Investment: Ancient Olympia-Katakolo. He mentioned that the Region of Western
Greece is one of the 13 Regions of Greece with a variety of landscapes, ranging from alpine
meadows to sandy beaches (49% forest/natural areas, 47% agricultural lands, 3% wetlands, 1%
urbanscapes). He added that it is a modern communications and transport hub that connects
Greece to the rest of Europe (the countrys main gateway to Western Europe). He pointed out that
tourism as a strategic emerging sector of RIS (Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart
Specialization) and culture as resource will verify the high competitiveness of the tourism product.
The policy of the Region of Western Greece aims to maintain Ancient Olympia's standing as a
leading tourist destination while maximizing the industry's contribution to growth and
employment. He added that culture and tourism are the sectors with a strong territorial
dimension, and thus, they need networking and spatial planning. Their "connection" requires
tailor-made actions and a multifaceted intervention (infrastructures, human resources,
entrepreneurship and ICT) identified spatially. He explained the term Territorial Investment,
which is a new holistic planning tool that can give an added value to the design of the above
strategy. The vision is The productive reconstruction of Ancient Olympias wider area through the
enhancement of the global identity, by taking into consideration the environment and society. He
underlined that the Regional intervention begins from the two-way (tourism-culture) relationship
and the path that a place needs to go through, in order to provide a modern and competitive
cultural and tourist attraction, through organized planning and cooperation between institutions.
He concluded that this path leads from Tourism to Culture (with sub base the primary sector) and
thereby feedbacks a growth cycle that will reverse the current vicious cycle of recession caused by
the current economic climate.
Then, the moderator asked participants to participate in a floor discussion. Mr. Dragan
Kostadinovic, Director of the Croatian travel agency Shuttle DMC, mentioned that 25 years ago
the key objective in Croatia was the increase in the visitors number but today the goal is to attract
fewer travelers but with a higher income. That is why special training course programs have been
organized for all travel agencies and stakeholders concerning the special forms of tourism and the
best way they can be promoted, with an emphasis on wine tourism, gastronomy and local
traditional products in order to extend the tourism season.
Then the floor was given to Ms. Nataa Bui, Senior Expert Associate from the Croatian
Chamber of Economy, Split County Chamber and Representative of AI Forum of Chambers of
Commerce. She mentioned that the Workgroup on sustainable tourism within the Forum of AIC is
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JUNE 2016-MAY 2017

a direct successor of the Workgroup on tourism, active since 2003 and newly reorganized in order
to become coherent and more in line with the EUSAIR Pillar IV. She added that the Forum of the
Adriatic and Ionian Chambers of Commerce is the instrument of the EUSAIR implementation,
whose objectives need to be applied to the Forums projects. She pointed out that the last
meeting of this WG was held in June 2016 and some specific guidelines for projects were agreed,
such as:
Certification and education in the tourism sector, especially eno-gastronomy;
Encouraging quality, following the example of the realized project Italian Hospitality;
Encouraging the development of special forms of tourism in order to reach the milestone
of a year-round season, like religious tourism, cyclo-tourism and eno-gastro tourism;
She underlined that achieving sustainable tourism is a continuous process, which requires
constant monitoring of impacts, introducing the necessary preventive and/or corrective measures
whenever necessary. She concluded that sustainable tourism should also maintain a high level of
tourist satisfaction and ensure a meaningful experience to the tourists, at the same time raising
their awareness about sustainability issues and promoting sustainable tourism practices amongst
them.
The next speaker was Mr. Vassilis Paliakis, member of the Steering Committee of the
"Menalon Social Cooperative Enterprise", who held a brief presentation on the Menalon hiking
trail in Greece. He said that the trail is located in Arcadia, an area rich in history and landscapes.
The trail has a length of 75 km and crosses the villages of Stemnitsa, Dimitsana, Zigovisti, Elati,
Vitina, Nymfassia, Magouliana, Valtessiniko, Lagadia. It is located 110 km from Kalamata airport
and 82 km from Ancient Olympia. About 10,000 hikers follow the Menalon trail every year. It
meets the standards set by the European Ramblers Association for the certification of walking
networks complying with a criteria system of 41 quantitative, technical and qualitative
parameters, in order to be certified. It is proposed to walkers from all over Europe as a reliable,
attractive and safe mountain adventure. He pointed out that the trail combines historical and
cultural monuments, hiking, gastronomy and nature. Mr. Angelos Papangelopoulos, Vice Head of
the Region of Peloponnese, added that it is for the benefit of all members to enhance the
cooperation as there is a very important cultural heritage. In particular, linking the ancient
theatres across the macro-region is an idea which they could all work on. He stressed out that the
organization of events, festivals, performances in ancient theatres is a proposal, which should be
considered seriously by all stakeholders.

Session 2: Enhancing connectivity through transport infrastructure development for sustainable

tourism destinations (water ports, seaplanes)
Water ports and seaplane services are crucial for the remote island and coastal destinations
which have no airport in close proximity. Not only do they allow the inhabitants to access the
mainland or other islands but they can also generate tourist flows to these destinations. Thus,

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JUNE 2016-MAY 2017

enhancing connectivity through the development of a waterways network can contribute to

generating employment opportunities and improving the transportation options.
The moderator opened the session and read out the intervention sent by Mr. Spiros
Galiatsatos, Vice-Governor for Tourism & Touristic Promotion of the Ionian Islands Region. The
title was: The importance of the water airports growth on the Ionian Islands - Actions taken by
the Region of Ionian Islands. The Ionian Islands Region, in cooperation with the Islands port
treasuries and Municipalities, has participated in programmatic agreements, in order to achieve as
soon as possible the licensing of more water airports, apart from those of the islands of Corfu and
Paxi which have already been licensed. Therefore, they are in the final stage for the water airports
on the islands of Lefkas, Meganisi, Cephalonia and Ithaca, while on Zante island the licensing
procedure is at an advanced level. Licensed water airports on all islands of the Region will not only
allow the more frequent and more rapid transportation of residents and visitors, but they will
constitute a modern means of transportation among the Ionian Islands. Thus, these actions will
contribute to the improvement of quality of life, will facilitate the residents transportation, will
adapt to modern tourist demands facilitation, which is an essential factor for the gross domestic
product and will result in a gross domestic prosperity, which is a dominant target of the Ionian
Islands Region.
The last presentation was given by Mr. George Alexakis, Vice-Governor for European and
International Affairs from the Region of Crete. The topic of his presentation was: Seaplanes in
Adriatic - Ionian Sea Basin: A short story from the past with a high future potential. He highlighted
the undeniable positive data which concern the creation of a water airport network in the Ionian
and Adriatic Sea. He stressed out that over the period 2004-2008 seaplanes were in service in the
Ionian Sea. As a result, an important knowledge was obtained by the Greek competent
institutions. This knowledge should be disseminated to other regions too in order to benefit from
the significant advantages which are derived from the operation of seaplanes. He pointed out that
this new alternative mode of transport can be an ideal complement to the existing transport
network aiming to link the Adriatic countries in an economical, safe and environmentally friendly
way and that it would also boost the tourism activities.
However, he added, in order to create a water airport network in the Adriatic, it is crucial to
choose the appropriate business model. This is in accordance with the fact that EUSAIR is
promoting sustainable economic growth and jobs as well as the creation of business opportunities
from blue economy sectors (including maritime services) by enhancing the interoperability of
transport modes. That could serve as a basis for further economic development which could
eventually contribute to the development of quality connectivity and encourage mobility. In this
context, various factors should be analyzed such as the type of flights, the location and the type of
water airports, which highlight the necessity of transregional and cross border cooperation.

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JUNE 2016-MAY 2017

Closing remarks
Mr. George Tziallas, Secretary General for Tourism Policy and Development from the Hellenic
Ministry of Tourism, made the closing remarks. He underlined that the Hellenic Ministry of
Tourism lays a great importance on the implementation of the EUSAIR concerning Pillar IV as the
Adriatic and Ionian Region has a great potential for tourism development and tourism
investments, coupled with a wealth of cultural assets, which need to be leveraged. To this end, he
pointed out that Greece is actively engaged in the work of the Thematic Steering Group 4 and
expressed his wish that the results of this Round Table will serve as a springboard for
consideration and discussion for the next TSG-4 meeting. He also presented briefly the key
priorities of the national tourism strategy, including the extension of the tourism season, the
diversification of tourism offer and the development of Special Interest Tourism in the context of
sustainable development.
Amb. Koutrakou thanked the participants for their attendance and congratulated the Ministry
of Tourism on the excellent organization of the meeting.
Amb. Pigliapoco took the floor. He thanked the AII Hellenic Chairmanship and the Hellenic
Ministry of Tourism for their efforts to put up this event. He underlined that this Round Table was
a successful example of the AII overhauled Round Table Meetings. He also expressed his
satisfaction over the participation of experts from the civil society (i.e. universities, private sector)
in the meeting.
Mr. Parthenis thanked the participants for their contribution to the meeting and closed the
Round Table.

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