The Network integrates cultural and social entities, tourist companies, businesses, artisans, academics and cultural institutions with the common goal of creating and promoting a new model of tourist activities and experiences, based on the TRS and committed to the Sustainable Development Goals (ODS) of the UN 2030 Agenda.
Now is the time to rethink and change the current tourism model. The impact of the pandemic on tourism in Catalonia opens up the opportunity to rebuild and redefine the tourism model and management towards sustainability and social responsibility.
Before the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Catalonia received nearly 39.5 million tourists a year, 38% of whom resided in the territory. The territorial distribution of visitors was uneven and tourist flows were concentrated in certain areas and times of the year.
In fact, according to data published by Idescat, the main emitting foci in Catalonia were the city of Barcelona and the AMB, and the receivers, the Costa Brava, the Costa Daurada, the Pyrenees, the Terres de l’Ebre and the Aran Valley
This dynamic fully affected the socio-economic structure of Catalonia and altered the quality of life of local residents, many of whom identified tourism as one of the most important problems in the territory, especially in Barcelona.
The existing tourist offer did not allow to discover and enjoy a large number of interesting activities that were carried out all over Catalonia and that highlighted the rich cultural, artistic, commercial and associative fabric of the territory.
On the other hand, the proposed tourist activities tended to ignore a relevant part of history and heritage and accentuated the denaturalization and banalization of their own ways of life.
A network with a double objective:
On the one hand, the Responsible and Sustainable Tourism Network aims to co-create interesting experiences for visitors and travelers from the proximity that allow them to discover the true essence and identity of Catalonia from a responsible and sustainable perspective.
This process is developed through a proprietary methodology that combines the criteria of creative tourism and regenerative design and allows co-creation of memorable and meaningful experiences that connect visitors with local communities and their environment.
On the other hand, the project aims to network local actors who, like us, believe in the need to transform the current tourist model into a responsible and sustainable one. So, La Xarxa is presented as a space of good governance where collaborating agents cooperate to promote the eco-social transition of the Catalan tourism sector.
At Aethnic we want to collaborate from innovation to improving and completing the current model while creating experiences with local actors that diversify and enrich visits to Catalonia.
We are convinced that tourism, if it is responsible and sustainable, can contribute in a powerful way to enhance local realities, generate wealth and employment, and promote the conservation of tangible and intangible historical heritage.
So, our proposal is very simple:
Co create a new catalog of tourism activities and experiences, based on responsible and sustainable tourism and committed to the ODS, aimed at visitors and tourists in Catalonia and co generated with the cultural and associative fabric of the vegueries.
The project of the Responsible and Sustainable Tourism Network (XTRS) will generate an alternative tourism offer to the current one that will be based on the principles of the Social and Solidarity Economy (ESS) and that will put at the center of the activity the needs of · classes of the vegueries.
So, La Xarxa will act guided by values such as equity, inclusion, solidarity, reciprocity and sustainability, and will promote profound transformations in the economy and society.
On an economic level, the project will bring visitors closer to the towns and villages of Catalonia and promote local commerce, especially that developed by artists, craft workshops, cultural laboratories, and other local agents. In this way, the XTRS will highlight a commercial offer that, as a result of the pandemic, is in danger of extinction, will generate new jobs and allow additional income to be obtained from ordinary economic activities.
However, the experiences of La Xarxa, as developed by the local agents themselves, will be strongly linked to the territory and will enhance the characteristic ways of life of the municipalities, while generating a unique “sense of place” and community.
Project localization:
Catalonia
Project schedule:
2021 - 2023