During the 1990s, the debate on environmental sustainability focused on local contexts, giving rise to initiatives as significant as the Local Agenda 21 programmes, which generated activities that made a considerable impact both socially and in terms of urban development. Today, in the final years of the first decade of the 21st century, debate on sustainability centres on a more complex context: the local and global scenario.
Taking sustainable tourism as a framework, in its capacity as the present and future cornerstone around which the economies of many destinations like the Balearics revolve, and following action plans established in the Balearic Plan for Science, Technology and Innovation 2005-2008 and more specifically the sub-programme to boost innovation in the tourist sector, yet again the Directorate General for Research, Technological Development and Innovation of the Government of the Balearic Islands is organizing INTO, the Seminar on Innovation and Tourism.
Each year INTO continues to consolidate its role as an international forum for debating research proposals and presenting good business practices. At each edition, an up-to-the-minute theme is presented for debate from which new knowledge and new applications can be gleaned and absorbed by the business community, through the introduction of innovative initiatives aimed at strengthening the tourism value chain.
At this fifth edition, the theme that has been chosen is “Tourism Commitment towards Climate Change. Opportunities and threats”. The aim is to analyse how the tourist sector can coexist with climate change and improve while also adapting to it. This coexistence is only viable through sustainable development and a shared sense of responsibility by all tourism stakeholders.
During the seminar, the debate will be held on the challenges that climate change poses for the tourist sector, analysing opportunities and strategies in the lodging and transport sectors, and exploring how tourism products and destinations can adapt and innovate. Lastly, the issues of improved collaboration between the private and public sectors, better adaptation, and the search for opportunities will be tackled, based on an analysis of successful case studies. Each of the sessions will include an analysis of the subject under discussion, examining it from different points of view. The dynamics of the seminar will be based on a talk followed by a round table.
The speakers taking part in the seminar are from academic circles and the private business sector at both a national and international level.
