Palma.—Europe’s coastal tourism areas have suffered “anarchic” development and misuse of resources and are in need of improved planning.
Isabel Garana, UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) regional director for Europe told an EU Conference on Coastal and Maritime Tourism in Athens yesterday: “We had a certain lack of regulation up to now and strong competition between destinations, which has led to misuse of resources.
“This requires integrated planning and management, linked to destination management.”
The conference focused on the Mediterranean, which drew 334 million visitors last year according to the UNWTO - one third of all tourists worldwide, making it by far the world’s leading destination and numbers are forecast to rise by 10 million a year up to 2030.
Mediterranean suffered “misuse” due to lack of tourism