Sustainable Tourism Model Being Developed for the Mediterranean

Greece is one of four partner countries, namely, Cyprus, Italy and Malta, involved in a program to develop a Mediterranean standard for sustainable tourism (MSST).

Meetings were held in Thessaloniki last month for this program, which was approved for INTERREG III B ARCHIMED in April with a total budget of 1,121,615 euros.

The goal is to develop a model for designing and carrying out sustainable tourism investments at a tourism destination in every partner country. The model will address every aspect of a tourism business from transportation and accommodation to entertainment.

Leading the program in Greece is the Dodekanissos Chamber with a budget of 164,213 euros. The chamber will work in association with the Ministry of Tourism Development whose budget is 181,208 euro, and the University of the Aegean Tourism Research Department whose budget is 223,888 euro.

The timetable for the program is June 2006 through December 2007.