CulTMed: Sustainable cultural tourism in the Mediterranean

Cultural tourism is a key sector for the EU economy, especially in the Mediterranean basin, where a wealth of cultural and natural heritage is concentrated. However, cultural tourism faces numerous challenges, such as loss of authenticity, over-commercialisation and negative environmental impact. CulTMed is presented as an innovative solution to address these challenges, promoting a sustainable and green approach to preserve cultural heritage while improving the quality of life of local communities. This project aims to turn cultural tourism into a sustainable development tool that respects both host communities and the environment.

The CulTMed project has several main objectives:

1. Firstly, it will enhance the capacity of professionals and stakeholders in the cultural tourism sector through training and development of key competences. To this end, innovation networks will be fostered to enable the transfer of good practices between the different professionals and organisations in the sector.
2. One of the main pillars of the project is the elaboration of a Best Practices report and the creation of a Digital Resource Library, which will serve as an accessible knowledge platform for all those interested in sustainability in the field of cultural tourism.
3. CulTMed also seeks to actively involve local communities in the creation of more sustainable tourism models, ensuring that these communities benefit directly from tourism development. Furthermore, the project focuses on inclusion, gender equality and diversity, ensuring that all stakeholders have the opportunity to participate and contribute to the outcomes.

As part of the expected outcomes, the project will develop four distinct curricula, each focusing on an aspect of sustainable cultural tourism. These curricula will be designed to provide specific training to enable professionals and organisations in the sector to improve their skills and knowledge in sustainable practices:

1. Sustainable Cultural Events: This curriculum will focus on how to organise and manage cultural events in a sustainable manner, minimising environmental impact and promoting responsible practices.
2. Archaeological Site Tourism: This curriculum will address best practices for managing archaeological sites with a sustainable approach, ensuring heritage preservation and promoting respect for history and the environment.
3. Museums/Galleries and Sustainability: This curriculum will teach how museums and galleries can adopt sustainable practices, both in exhibition management and daily operations, to contribute to sustainable development.
4. Local Communities and Sustainable Cultural Tourism: This curriculum will focus on how local communities can engage in and benefit from sustainable cultural tourism, ensuring that tourism development is inclusive and equitable. CulTMed will also implement Living Labs, which will act as experimental spaces where new ideas and approaches to cultural tourism can be tested in less popular local communities. These Living Labs will allow local communities and other stakeholders to collaborate in the development of customised solutions that respond to their specific needs. In addition, a series of events involving policy makers, sustainability experts and community leaders will be organised to disseminate the project results and ensure their adoption at regional and European level. In this way, it is expected that the good practices collected, taught and tested will contribute to promote significant changes across EU society, fostering a more inclusive and environmentally friendly model of cultural tourism.

The project partners, committed to the vision of achieving a sustainable transition in the EU, are Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Italy and Portugal.