Every two years, the EUROPARC Sustainble Tourism Network comes together to share best practice, learn and connect with peers. This year, the network will meet in Bled, Slovenia.

Visitor monitoring in Protected Areas

• 16 – 18 May (Arrival on the 15th, departure on the 19th)
• Infocenter Triglavska Roža Bled, Ljubljanska cesta 27, 4260 Bled, Slovenia

Managing visitors in Protected Areas is becoming more and more complex. Visitor numbers seem to be growing unlimitedly all over Europe, as well as the number of new recreational forms, that irrupt season after season. This rise in visitor numbers and activities takes a toll not only on the natural environment, but also on the local communities and visitors’ own experience.

Protected Areas managers are confronted with the challenging decision of how to best protect the natural environment while not compromising the visitor experience. Thus, good visitor monitoring systems and tools, – both in terms of quality and quantity – are essential for making sound decisions on visitor management.

Moreover, we will have the opportunity to discover directly from the field how unique Slovenia’s National Park and oldest Biosphere Reserve in the country is managing the rapid and dramatic rise in visitor numbers. In the space of eight years, visitation in Triglav National Park has increased more than five-fold, which has created several environmental, nature conservation, and sociological issues.

Besides, there will be plenty of opportunities to network and share experiences, learn from each other, and get new ideas to take back to your areas, including an “open mic” session, in which you can bring a 5 minutes presentation of your project, ideas for projects, looking for partners, or just raising general sustainable tourism questions you want advice on from the audience.

Furthermore, we will have the unique opportunity to understand how transboundary cooperation is made possible regarding managing visitors and many other topics between the Triglav National Park (SLO) and Parco Naturale Prealpi Giulie (IT) in the Transboundary Ecoregion Julian Alps, a Transboundary Sustainable Destination.

Download the full programme here

Practical information

Bled is generally relatively easy to reach with different forms of public transport. More details can be found in the programme. We encourage you to book accommodation as soon as possible, as the 18th of May is a public holiday in some countries (Ascension Day). Some information on accommodation can be found here.

• Fee: 250 Euros. This covers the participation in the whole event, including meals and field trips.
• Registration closed on the 15th of April

The LIFE UrbanGreeningPlans project is coming to an end! To share the wealth of experience collected by the participating cities and Periurban Parks, project partners are excited to invite you to the closing conference in Barcelona.

About the Conference “Greening Towards Urban Resilience”

• Date: 14 – 15 March
• Location: Citilab Cornellà  (https://www.citilab.eu/), Plaça de Can Surís, s/n, 08940, Cornellà de Llobregat

Nature-based Solutions can support urban areas in responding and adapting to climate change. To do so efficiently, learning from Periurban Parks, working across city departments and communicate efficiently is essential. The different project partners of the programme have been working across these areas to lead the way in urban greening. This work, accompanied by expert interventions and field trips, await participants of the conference. Participation is free of charge.

At this final conference of LIFE UrbanGreeningPlans, we will bring together people from different disciplines to reflect on urban greening, sharing best practice case studies and working towards a common framework. To do so, we will take into account multiple scales and angles. We will consider a wide range of urban ecosystems, from urban forests, parks, blue and green corridors, to others. Furthermore, we will consider the actual contexts of climate change, rapid urbanization and social uncertainty.

• How can we further enhance ecosystem services in our cities?
• How can green spaces contribute to urban resilience?
• How can we incorporate urban greening at different levels of government?

Those are the questions we will answer during this high-level event.

During two days, Conference participants will enjoy a highly interactive programme. From the presentation of the different project actions in the cities of Athens, Barcelona, Brussels, Milan and Lisbon, to thought-provoking keynote speakers, the event will have no shortage of inspiration for decision makers and urban planners across Europe.

Check out the programme (English)

Check out the programme (Catalan)

Registration has closed! If you have not received a confirmation email please contact:

Join this webinar with Dr Xavier Font on the 23rd of February.

Four benefits of better sustainability marketing and communication – Tips for rural businesses

• 23.02, from 10:00 – 11:00 CET
• Attendance is free, but registration is necessary

There are many rural tourism and hospitality businesses that already protect their environment and create meaningful jobs, purchase locally and promote a sense of belonging. These businesses may not be making the most of their sustainability practices because they are not aware of how they can effectively communicate them, or because they have unrealistic expectations of what such a label can achieve. It is time to learn how to communicate your sustainability in a way that makes sense to your customers.

In this webinar, Dr Xavier Font, professor of Sustainability Marketing at the University of Surrey, United Kingdom will demonstrate how sustainable businesses can better market and communicate what makes them different, by focusing on how it makes their customer’s experience more complete. We will brainstorm realistic ideas that you can adapt, relevant to the decisions your customers need to take, that will help reassure them that you are the right company for their needs. Without idealism, jargon and ‘save the planet’ messages.

The webinar will focus on the four benefits of better sustainability marketing and communications for rural tourism businesses. Furthermore, we will look at tips to reduce your operating costs, improve your customer satisfaction, increase their expenditure, as well as their loyalty.

This webinar is a follow-up on a successful webinar organised last October. In the previous webinar, Dr Font detailed how small businesses and destination managers can design and market sustainable experiences during the low season.

Register here

Webinar Programme

Welcome and Introductions
Teresa Pastor, ECST Manager at EUROPARC Federation.

Creating better sustainability marketing for your business
Dr Xavier Font.

Let’s talk about it!
Participants will have the chance to pose questions.

The webinar will last 1 hour.

About the speaker

Dr Font researches and develops methods of sustainable tourism production and consumption. He has published widely about sustainable tourism certification, and has consulted on sustainable product development, marketing and communication. He currently serves as an advisor in Prince Harry’s Travalyst coalition of Booking.com, Tripadvisor, Google, Expedia, Skyscanner, Visa and Trip. Furthermore, he has conducted over 150 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”, which aims to develop low season sustainable tourism visitor experiences.

This call for tenders is issued within the scope of the LIFE Preparatory Project, ‘LIFE ENABLE: Creating the European Nature Academy for Applied Blended Learning’

For the purposes of this tender, acting on behalf of the project partners, the contracting authority for this Invitation to Tender is EUROPARC Federation.

Procurement – External Service Contract for video editing & provision of associated support services

The contracting authority is looking to engage with an experienced external service provider to provide external support services for the editing of videos and production of basic filming guidelines to be produced and used as part of the competence-based capacity building courses that will be delivered through the European Nature Academy training hub (the LIFE ENABLE learning platform). Also, in discussion with the Contracting Authority, the contractor will produce practical ‘how to’ filming guidelines.

Above all, the project requires a technical development contractor who is innovative, solution-oriented and able to think with partners. In particular, they should be able to demonstrate that they have previous experience of using and working with a variety of video-editing software. The videos will be for use with international viewers. Previous experience of delivering similar work as an external service contractor within the scope of an EU funded project would be an advantage: those bidding for this contract should be able to demonstrate familiarity with EU funded project terms and conditions especially in relation to publicity.

It is essential that the contractor is fully competent in the necessary technical development services but, equally, is able to anticipate and incorporate advanced new technologies to future-proof the technical products created by this contract and ensure their sustainability and longevity. This will help to ensure that the European Nature Academy training hub and the digital functioning of the tools, including the videos produced and used, are capable of meeting users’ needs and expectations now and in the future.

Indicatively, the maximum value of this contract is €9,000 gross, inclusive of VAT.

Bids must be submitted in English and set out how they will deliver the contract effectively and efficiently and demonstrate relevant technical knowledge, skills and experience

The bids must be submitted in the required format and received by 23.59 on 17 February 2023.

Download the full procurement call