DestiNet - Sustainable Tourism Information Portal
[last updated April 26, 2007 5:42 AM]

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General Information
Partnership website(s)
Expected Timeframe
March 2004 - January 2009
Partners
Governments:
    Major Groups:
    • ECOTRANS e. V. (Germany)
    UN System:
    • United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) - Production and Consumption Branch (France)
    Other intergovernmental organizations:
    • European Environment Agency (EEA) (Denmark)
    • World Tourism Organization (WTO) - UN Agency (Spain)
    Other:
       
      Thematic Focus
      Primary Themes:
      • Tourism
      Secondary Themes:
      • Protecting and managing the natural resource base of economic and social development
      • Land
      • Transport
      • Waste management
      • Changing unsustainable patterns of consumption and production
      • Marine resources
      • Biodiversity
      • Education
      • Water
      • Mountains
      • Oceans and seas
      Geographic Coverage
      Geographic Scope: Sub-regional Europe
      Country(ies) where the partnership is being implemented:
      Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
      National Focal Points
      This partnership has made contact with the national focal points for sustainable development in the countries involved
      Goals and Objectives
      Summary of the partnership's goals and objectives
      DestiNet http://destinet.ewindows.eu.org - is a portal that provides information on sustainable tourism, and is primarily targeted at tourist destinations. Started in 2002 by the EEA the portal is now expanded to include Partner inputs from a wide range of tourism disciplines, via the ECOTRANS network of European sustainable tourism interests. The information provided on DestiNet includes tips on best practice in resource management, links to relevant websites and uploaded reports and articles.

      The Partners intend to enhance the effectiveness of their multilateral efforts to protect the environment by focusing on improving communication and knowledge exchange among themselves and their stakeholders The effort will optimise decision making on issues relevant to developing, enhancing, and evaluating, policy measures, and the success of regulatory and voluntary actions concerning tourism and tourism destinations.

      DestiNet website shall represent the leading communication and information dissemination platform for partners and relevant tourism communities to collaborate on information development and publishing Additionally the website will be used to organize events, select indicator methodologies, report on best practices, compare service eco-efficiency statements and labels, post news and announcements, propose models and tools for managing technologies and natural resources.
      Targets and Progress
      Partnership targets
      Three targets will be set focusing on: (A) Content, (B) Quality of Information, and (C) Relevancy of the Information to Policy Processes.

      A. Content:
      1. Proactive participation of all DestiNet partners in content contribution and communication;
      2. Continuous document uploading and updating;
      3. Progressive site access - users/audience;
      4. Expansion of contributor enrolment.

      B. Quality:
      1. Positive site visitor quality-related judgements;
      2. Knowledge evaluation in line with objectives;
      3. Growth in number of links, provided by other sites to DestiNet;
      4. Continuous improvement of site visit facilitation tools: language helps, glossaries, dictionaries, etc..

      C. Relevance to policy processes:
      The EEA by focusing on providing its member countries with high quality information for policy-making to assess the state of the environment, to inform the general public, and to provide scientific and technical support to these ends will provide an unique view on the relevancy that DestiNet may have on influencing policies in Europe and other counties.
      Progress against targets
      Performance evaluation will be established for targets as follows:

      Content:
      1. Number of active Partner content contributors (29 by Q/4 `04);
      2. Number of documents approved for publication within the DestiNet administration and management hierarchy (To be assessed based on quality criteria);
      3. Web site access statistics, unique visitors, returning visitors, session time, downloads, etc. (100.000 visitor per month by Q/2 `05)
      4. Number of sub-delegations given by Partners to additional content contributors. (>10 per partner by Q/2 `05).

      Quality:
      1. Visitor feedback questionnaires (continuous corrective actions based on comments);
      2. Time references, completeness, and traceability of uploads (semiannual document audit);
      3. Links established by other sites to DestiNet (>500 by Q/1 `05);
      4. Use of glossaries, dictionaries, definitions, languages, help desk, navigation support, searches, use-friendly interactivity interfaces, content retrieval robots, collaboration, and document management functionalities (all facilities implemented by Q/2 `05).

      Relevance to policy processes:
      The European Environment Agency (EEA) and its wider network, the Environmental Information and Observation Network (EIONET), shall be considered one of the main recipients and evaluator of DestiNet results. Information uptake by the EEA for indicators and State of Environment reports will be considered fundamental for the partnership relevancy to policy processes.
      Capacity-Building and Technology Transfer
      Arrangements for Capacity-Building and Technology Transfer
      • Education/building awareness
      • Institutional strengthening, including local participation
      IT training courses are regularly provided at the EEA in Copenhagen, Denmark, and these will be open for participation of the partners in the DestiNet portal.
      Relationship to International Agreements on Sustainable Development
      How the partnership contributes to the implementation of Agenda 21, the Programme for the Further Implementation of Agenda 21, and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation
      Agenda 21
      Chapter 40: INFORMATION FOR DECISION-MAKINGPROGRAMME AREA B: Improving availability of information

      Objective 40.19. Existing national and international mechanisms of information processing and exchange, and of related technical assistance, should be strengthened to ensure effective and equitable availability of information generated .

      Activity A) -- Production of information usable for decision-making 40.22. Countries and international organizations should review and strengthen information systems and services in sectors related to sustainable development, at the local, provincial, national and international levels. Special emphasis should be placed on the transformation of existing information into forms more useful for decision-making and on targeting information at different user groups. Mechanisms should be strengthened or established for transforming scientific and socio-economic assessments into information suitable for both planning and public information. Electronic and non-electronic formats should be used.

      Activity D) -- Establishment and strengthening of electronic networking capabilities. 40.25. Countries, international organizations, including organs and organizations of the United Nations system, and non-governmental organizations should exploit various initiatives for electronic links to support information sharing, to provide access to databases and other information sources, to facilitate communication for meeting broader objectives, such as the implementation of Agenda 21, to facilitate intergovernmental negotiations, to monitor conventions and efforts for sustainable development to transmit environmental alerts, and to transfer technical data. These organizations should also facilitate the linkage of different electronic networks and the use of appropriate standards and communication protocols for the transparent interchange of electronic communications. Where necessary, new technology should be developed and its use encouraged to permit participation of those not served at present by existing infrastructure and methods. Mechanisms should also be established to carry out the necessary transfer of information to and from non-electronic systems to ensure the involvement of those not able to participate in this way.

      Programme for the Further Implementation of Agenda 21
      68. There is a need to consider further the importance of tourism in the context of Agenda 21. Tourism, like other sectors, uses resources, generates wastes and creates environmental, cultural and social costs and benefits in the process. For sustainable patterns of consumption and production in the tourism sector, it is essential to strengthen national policy development and enhance capacity in the areas of physical planning, impact assessment, and the use of economic and regulatory instruments, as well as in the areas of information, education and marketing. A particular concern is the degradation of biodiversity and fragile ecosystems, such as coral reefs, mountains, coastal areas and wetlands.

      Johannesburg Plan of Implementation
      Section 43, Page 25 on Tourism
      43. Promote sustainable tourism development, including non-consumptive and eco-tourism, taking into account the spirit of the International Year of Eco ¿tourism 2002, the United Nations Year for Cultural Heritage in 2002, the World Eco ¿tourism Summit 2002 and its Quebec Declaration, and the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism as adopted by the World Tourism Organization in order to increase the benefits from tourism resources for the population in host communities while maintaining the cultural and environmental integrity of the host communities and enhancing the protection of ecologically sensitive areas and natural heritages. Action a: Enhance international cooperation, foreign direct investment and partnerships with both private and public

      Relevant Sections of Agenda 21
      Information for decision-making
      Relevant Sections of the Programme for the Further Implementation of Agenda 21
      Means of implementation
      Relevant Sections of the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation
      Means of implementation
      Coordination and Implementation
      Coordination Mechanism of the Partnership
      Lead partners will define dependencies in data and information flows within the DestiNet web site as well as assign content and sub-contributor responsibilities and tasks to the other partnership members. Coordination will leverage on the web authoring and content management technology of the European Environment Agency currently used for the Agency network (http://www.eionet.eu.int/) and EnviroWindows (http://ewindows.eu.org) made also available to DestiNet website.

      The EEA will focus coordination efforts on:
      * Ensuring that web technologies meet Communication, Information provision, and policy-making information needs;
      * Carrying out continuous performance evaluation to assess barriers to information sharing, and publishing;
      * Ensuring that all content contributors receives all technical information to perform their tasks.

      ECOTRANS will focus coordination efforts on:
      * Ensuring that there is a regular flow of new information to the site in relevant categories;
      * Promotion of the portal at conferences, workshops and other relevant fora, and;
      * Cooperating with EEA and partners to ensure that website design is optimal.
      Implementation Mechanism of the Partnership
      Technology:
      A common set of web-authoring and groupware tools is made available by the European Environment Agency (EEA) to the partners at http://destinet.ewindows.eu.org. These tools are designed to enable communities geographically spread across Europe (and beyond) - such as DestiNet - to collaborate on developing, publishing, and maintaining information on common web spaces.

      Leadership:
      The lead partners will define the content structure for the partners to post information. A 'basket of approval' allows the leaders and selected partners to approve or reject document for publication on DestiNet site. The leaders for quality control purposes supervise a hierarchical organization of content providers. ECOTRANS members (see appendix) will be invited to become content managers of specific thematic sections within the portal. It is anticipated that a core group of some 5 - 10 content managers, drawn from the ECOTRANS network, will become integrated into the daily operation of the portal, for example adding new content and checking for broken links.

      Access Control:
      Lead partners assign specific Access Privileges to qualified users to selected DestiNet sections and services. Lead partners supersede access privileges provided to DestiNet members. Lead partners can grant a specific member "Access and Post data" privileges for specific sub-sections of DestiNet site. Relationships with the partner and the EEA are governed by the "Terms of service for leaders" as defined in http://www.ewindows.eu.org/About/terms/Leaders/ either as Interoperable Portals (IP) and/or Interest Group Leaders (IG).

      Knowledge:
      Partners and their stakeholders collect, publish, and disseminate experiences, best practices, scientific findings, and management approaches in order to support various decision making processes: from individual destination selection levels to regional, national, and supranational policy processes and awareness raising strategies.
      Resources
      Funding Currently Available
      Amount in US$: N/A
      Source(s):
      N/A
      Non-financial resources available
      Type(s): Computers - Office space - Staff
      Source(s): Government - Private sector - IGO - NGO
      The partners, from government, private sector, IGOs and NGOs, will devote various non-financial resources to the running of the DestiNet portal. The EEA will contribute time to solving any technical issues that may arise during the running of the portal, as well as space on the EnviroWindows server. Furthermore, the EEA will offer the staff of the other partners, as well as members of the ECOTRANS network, the opportunity to participate in relevant EEA courses on the use of the software. All software needed for running and contributing to the portal is provided by the EEA to the partners. The other partners (WTO, UNEP, and ECOTRANS members) will contribute via free provision of the computers and office space, including internet access and emailing functionality, that the relevant employees need to access the portal.
      Funding Sought
      Required Amount in US$: not specified
      Source(s) already approached: It is anticipated that funding could be available within the EU Commission to support an initiative such as DestiNet but this needs to be explored in greater detail, for example using the internet and making in-depth enquiries.
      Non-financial resources sought
      Requirement(s): Computers
      Computers and software would be of potential use.
      Source(s) approached and details: Private sector
      Additional Information
      Additional Relevant Information
      Appendix- Membership Details for ECOTRANS

      Lisa Davies
      c/o ETC European Travel Commission
      19A Avenue Marnix (PO Box 25)
      1000 Bruxelles (BE)
      Phone: **32-2-5020113
      Fax: **32-2-5141843
      l.davies@etc-corporate.org
      http://www.etc-corporate.org

      Sylvie Blangy
      TUKTU, Consultante en Ecoturisme
      152 Impasse des Deux Ruisseaux
      34090 Montpellier (FR)
      Phone: **33-4-99611793
      sylvie.blangy@free.fr

      Sue Cassel
      EUFED - European Union Federation of Youth Hostel Associations
      25, Rue Haute
      1000 Bruxelles (BE)
      Phone: **32-2-5028066
      Fax: **32-2-5025578
      sg@eufed.org
      http://www.eufed.org

      Peter Zimmer
      FUTOUR Umwelt-, Tourismus,- und
      Regionalberatung GmbH & Co. KG
      Waltherstraße 29
      80337 München (DE)
      Phone: **49-89-5440910
      Fax: **49-89-54409119
      e-mail: info@futour.com
      http://www.futour.com

      Udo Gattenlöhner
      Global Nature Fund (GNF)
      Guettinger Str. 19
      78315 Radolfzell (DE)
      Phone: **49-7732-9995-0
      Fax: **49-7732-9995-77
      globalnature@t-online.de

      Lorenzo Canova
      ACTA - Associazione Cultura Turismo Ambiente
      Via Scarlatti 27
      20124 Milano (IT)
      Phone: **39-02-66980931
      Fax: **39-02-66716371
      lorenzo.canova@actanet.it
      http://www.actanet.it

      Manfred Pils
      1070 Vienna (AT)
      Manfred.Pils@verbund.at

      Karl Reiner
      ÖAR - Regionalberatung GmbH
      Fichtegasse 2/17
      1010 Wien (AT)
      Phone: **43-1-512159522
      Fax: **43-1-512159510
      reiner@oear.co.at
      http://www.oear.at

      Herbert Hamele
      Büro Herbert Hamele
      Futterstrasse 17 - 19
      D-66111 Saarbrücken (DE)
      Phone: **49-681-374679
      Fax: **49-681-374633
      herbert.hamele@t-online.de

      Fernando Prats Palazuelo
      AUIA-Arquitectos Urbanistas e Ingenieros Asociados
      C/o Papa Negro, 41/b
      Parque de Conde Orgaz 28043
      Madrid (ES)
      Phone:**34-91-7216580
      auia@telefonica.net

      Anke Biedenkapp
      Reisepavillon - Marktplatz für anderes Reisen
      c/o Stattreisen Hannover
      Hausmannstraße 9-10
      39159 Hannover (DE)
      Phone: **49-511-1694167
      Fax: **49-511-1640391
      info@reisepavillon-online.de
      http://www.reisepavillon-online.de

      Marco Walter
      ECOCAMPING
      c/o Bodensee-Stiftung
      Paradiesstrasse 13
      78462 Konstanz (DE)
      Phone: **49-7531-909890
      Fax: **49-7531-909877
      ecocamping@bodensee-stiftung.org
      http://www.ecocamping.net

      Marion Hammerl-Resch
      Bodensee-Stiftung
      Fritz-Reichle-Ring 4
      78315 Radolfzell (DE)
      Phone: **49-77 32-99 95-40
      Fax: **49-77 32-99 95-49
      m.hammerl@bodensee-stiftung.org
      http://www.bodensee-stiftung.org

      Dominik Siegrist
      HS Rapperswil
      Forschungsstelle für Freizeit, Tourismus und Landschaft
      Abt. Landschaftsarchitektur
      Oberseestr. 10
      8640 Rapperswil
      dsiegris@hsr.ch
      http://www.ftl.hsr.ch

      Christian Baumgartner
      International Friends of Nature
      Diefenbachgasse 36/3
      1150 Wien (AT)
      Phone: **43-1-8923877-11
      Fax: **43-1-8129789
      christian.baumgartner@nfi.at
      http://www.nfi.at

      Karl Reiner
      NETS EWIV
      c/o ÖAR Regionalberatung GmbH
      Fichtegasse 2/17
      1010 Wien (AT)
      Phone: **43-1-512 15 95-0
      Fax: **43-1-512 15 95 -10
      contact@soft-mobility.com
      http://www.soft-mobility.com

      Ghislain Dubois
      Tourisme, Transports, Territoires, Environnement Conseil (TEC)
      38 rue Sénac de Meilhan
      13001 Marseille (FR)
      Phone: **33 (0) 4 91 91 81 25
      Fax: **33 (0) 6 10 16 22 35
      Ghislain.Dubois@tec-conseil.com
      http://www.tec-conseil.com

      Asnate Ziemele
      Latvian Country Tourism Association "Lauku celotajs"
      Kugu iela 11
      Riga LV-1048
      Latvia
      Phone: +(371) 7617024
      Fax: +(371) 7830041
      asnate@celotajs.lv
      http://www.celotajs.lv

      Alan Vella
      Floriana Malta
      Phone: **356-7941 5340
      alanvella@keyworld.net
      http://www.mepa.org.mt

      Gordon Sillence
      Casa Velha
      Abrigo da Serra, Marmelete
      8550 Monchique (PT)
      Phone: **351-282-912-719
      gsillence@clix.pt

      Fundación 2001 - Global Nature
      c/ Capitán Haya, 23. Esc. 2ª 9º-2
      28020 Madrid (ES)
      Phone: **34-91-556 93 90
      Fax: **34-91-556 98 95
      madrid@fundacionglobalnature.org
      http://www.fundacionglobalnature.org

      Naut Kusters
      ECEAT projects
      P.O. Box 10899
      1001 EW Amsterdam (NL)
      Phone: **31-20-4651318
      Fax: **31-20-4630594
      n.kusters@eceat-projects.org
      http://www.eceat.nl

      Foppe Seekles
      EUCC - The Coastal Union
      P.O. Box 11232
      2301 EE Leiden (NL)
      tcm.seekles@planet.nl
      http://www.eucc.nl

      Xavier Font
      Centre for the Study of Small Tourism and Hospitality Firms Leeds Metropolitan University Calverley St Leeds, LS1 3HE (UK)
      phone: **44-113 283 2600
      X.Font@lmu.ac.uk
      http://www.lmu.ac.uk/lsif/the/sustainability.htm