News | 18 Mar 2024
Sustainable rural tourism practices
- Rural Pact
- Rural Revitalisation Platform
- Connected rural areas
- Resilient rural areas
- Prosperous rural areas
- Tourism and heritage
- Nature and environment
- Digital
- Social inclusion
Tourism as an integrated development sector – combining aspects such as cultural heritage and environmental conservation, and community engagement – is at the heart of European rural areas’ sustainable development. A recent RuralTour event examined the regional dimension of rural tourism development.
Organised by RuralTour, the European Federation of Rural Tourism, the event (16 February 2024 – Bergamo, Italy) explored rural tourism through the lenses of regional development, the Rural Pact, digital and green management of heritage and landscape, and inclusivity.
Explore a range of initiatives highlighted at the event, showcasing innovative and sustainable rural tourism practices, including:
- the ‘Baltic Holidays initiative’ developing tailor-made travel experiences to the Baltic countries, Scandinavia, and Eastern Europe for small groups;
- the ‘Bergamo UNESCO creative city for gastronomy’ encouraging gastronomy-related policies and programmes in support of local farmers;
- the BAUHAUS4EU alliance, a pan-European network of ten higher education institutions, and its initiative to identify solutions preserving heritage and landscape in tourism development in mountain areas.