Responsible Tourism and Maritime Spatial Planning

Abstract

Tourism is an industry strongly linked with global issues. In recent years, there has been a growing concern for tourism development according to standards that guarantee the preservation of ecological balance and the prevention of resource-overuse and other negative environmental effects. Although the ideas of respect and responsibility were inexorably connected to tourism since 1980, it is only in 2002 that the Cape Town Declaration outlined a number of priorities to be incorporated in the management of destinations and ultimately led to forms of responsible tourism in terms of social, economic and environmental sustainability. In this respect, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), as part of the Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, could make a significant contribution to sustainability, together with Maritime spatial planning (MSP), which supports and facilitates the implementation of the same strategy. Conceptually linked with CSR, MSP is a coastal management program that, operates at the international level and transparently involves stakeholders in the planning of maritime activities, in order to: plan when and where human activities take place at sea, and to ensure that these are done as efficiently and sustainably as possible. As part of EU’s ‘Blue Growth’ strategy, the coastal and maritime tourism sector has been identified as a key area, offering a potential for a smarter, sustainable and more inclusive Europe. According to the ‘ Blue Growth Study ’, coastal and maritime tourism, represents the largest maritime sector in terms of gross-value-added and employment; it is also expected to grow by 2–3% by 2020. In this context, this paper aims to identify and analyse the role of responsible tourism in MSP, focusing on the Romanian coast of the Black Sea. In the first part, an overview of the two concepts is presented; namely, CSR and MSP, their relationship and their main influence factors. The second part, will propose an implementation framework for a CSR approach in the local tourism industry, in accordance with the MSP principles, containing information on how to develop and implement a CSR strategy and commitments, in order to meet the demands of the coastal area responsible tourism. In this respect, local tourism stakeholders have a key role to play in defining the MSP local issues and needs. The purpose here is to raise the awareness of professionals, institutions and travellers, on what is at stake, and to underline the necessity and interest to change behaviours and regulations in line with responsible tourism goals.