/ Town Hall
Thursday 9th May 2019
CONFERENCE ON THE ADAPTATION OF COASTAL TOURIST DESTINATIONS TO CLIMATE CHANGE
Calvià has been the coastal destination chosen by ADAPTUR to carry out a research and participation project based on the adhesion of the municipality to the Covenant of Mayors for Sustainable Energy and Climate
A conference on adaptation strategies of tourist destinations to climate change (ADAPTUR), organised by the Ecounión association, with the support of the Biodiversidad Foundation, and the participation of the GRATET research group of the Rovira i Virgili University in Tarragona, has taken place today at Es Generador municipal building in Calvià.
ADAPTUR is a research, participation and capacity building for the development of strategies for the adaptation of tourist destinations to climate change project, within the framework of the Climate Change National Plan. ADAPTUR is developed during 2019 and aims to produce knowledge for decision-making and awareness of public and private actors.
The Ecounion entity has chosen two destinations in Spain to carry out this project: Calvià, as a coastal destination, and Jaca, as a mountain destination.
At the conference held today, the objective was to establish a starting point for the need to promote strategies for adaptation and mitigation of climate change on tourism, explaining the impacts and risks of climate change for the Balearic Islands and how these scenarios will affect the Balearic tourist model.
In the case of Calvià, the actions that are being carried out within the framework of the municipality's accession to the Covenant of Mayors for Sustainable Energy and Climate have been put on the table, as an example of the fight against climate change, in which aspects such as the protection of the posidonia oceanica, the recovery of marshes in the area of Magaluf or the 2030 strategy in which, amongst other aspects, advocates a "wise tourism" in Calvià which implies carrying out sustainable tourism in line with the economic development of the municipality. All this, from the public administration.
Standing out in the private initiative (hotel sector) is: the agreement with the Town Hall of waste selective collection to which 54,5% of the hotels are adhered, the reduction of energetic consumption and water and the progressive implementation of solar energy.
The mayor of Calvià, Alfonso Rodríguez Badal, has welcomed the participants to this conference highlighting the importance of this project for the municipality which as a tourist destination should pay special attention to protect its coastline and minimise impacts, highlighting aspects that are contributing to this objective such as the investments in purification to complete the water cycle or the progressive change of lighting to LED technology to reduce CO2 emissions.
