1. Background

At DestiNet inception the EEA contracted Ramboll corporation and ECOTRANS - a network on tourism and sustainable development - to develop a coherent information exchange process on tourism and its impacts on the environment. In March 2004 DestiNet was registered as UN Type II partnership. In 2005 DestiNet became fully operational allowing users to simply access data and manage information, or enter into dialogue, network and market their information, products and services with other tourism stakeholders throughout Europe . The UN Type II partnership is under the auspices of the United Nation Commission on Sustainable Development (UN CSD), which enables users to join in a permanent and formal sustainable tourism knowledge network. As specified in the CSD Partnership Registration Form, the overall objective for the DestiNet portal, is:

"To enhance the effectiveness of the partners' multilateral efforts to protect the environment by focusing on improving communication and knowledge exchange. to optimise coherent decision making on issues relevant to developing, enhancing and evaluating policy measures and the effectiveness of regulatory and voluntary actions concerning tourism and tourism destinations".

The portal is designed to facilitate information dissemination and knowledge exchange between tourism stakeholders from policy-making bodies, business and industry, to a wide variety of European destinations. As a European Union initiative, DestiNet portal represents the leading European-level communication and knowledge exchange platform on the socio-economic and environmental impacts related to the tourism sector.

Furthermore, the Tourism Learning Area Handbook development process (EC, DG ENTER, Tourism Unit, 2004/05) supplied a strategy to use the DestiNet Portal as an eLearning Area for Tourism and Sustainable Patterns of Production and Consumption. DestiNet Type II partnership structure has the potential of matching the concept of the Learning Area Model of Excellence with the WSSD 10 year framework (2003-2012) for achieving Sustainable Patterns of Consumption and Production (SCP). Today (October 2005) DestiNet is already fulfilling the several criteria of being a prominent platform to support the needs of the tourism sector in terms of acquiring information and developing new knowledge. However DG Enterprise focus on the economic implications of the Lisbon Agenda and the Cardiff Process of environmental policy integration requires providing a more result oriented support to stakeholders on the issues of sustainability, service quality, innovation, and competitiveness.

The complexity, ambitions, and socio-economic magnitude of the several aspects linked to the " Lisbon " and " Cardiff " processes pose clear challenges for DestiNet priority setting, objective definition, and resource tracing and allocation. In the light of these, the five year plan has been oriented towards more focused efforts to complement DG Environment in supporting the natural resources strategy as analytical framework for sustainable production and consumption policies, including waste management, and in promoting the portal for communication and information sharing among stakeholders in the tourism sector. In a working paper adopted by the Commission on 28 September 2005 , the European Commission has proposed a comprehensive review of environment policy. It has deemed necessary to simplify and clarify existing rules and propose less cumbersome framework legislation where new legislation is deemed necessary. But it has also sought to reconcile strategic objectives with the interests of all economic stakeholders (companies, public authorities), in the least binding and most profitable way possible. The fulfilment of this desire represents the background upon which the objectives of a DestiNet five year plan have been defined ( see resources)

See the DestiNET site or contact ECOTRANS for further information.