Luigi Cabrini, GSTC Chair, spoke and moderated the panel “Participatory Governance in Sustainable Tourism Destinations” at the International Conference on Sustainability and Competitiveness in Tourist Destinations (STDArona17), on 15-16 June 2017, in Arona, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain.

The International Conference on Sustainability and Competitiveness in Tourist Destinations was organized by the municipality of Arona and the Responsible Tourism Institute (RTI), with the goal to involve tourist destinations in the strategic role that Sustainability will play in consolidating a sustainable and stable competitive positioning in the future world tourism market, as well as to provide an international model of sustainability applied to tourist destinations that facilitates its rapid integration in their operational management.

To this end, from the indispensable framework established by the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) included in the United Nations Agenda 2030 and the guidelines emanating from the World Charter on Sustainable Tourism and the indications of the Paris Agreement (COP21), the conference aims to identify the key factors of Sustainable Development in the Tourist Destinations of the future, encouraging, on the one hand, its maximum diffusion to achieve its application and, on the other, to help entities with competencies in tourism policies and strategies to achieve substantial improvements of their competitiveness based on Sustainability as a competitive advantage.