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SusTowns – Enhancing SUStainable tourism attraction in small fascinating med Towns

Mediterranean space resides also in the fascinating small towns which have increasingly become tourist destinations for large numbers of visitors, favouring both the development and growth of its territories. Thanks to press campaigns, fashions and youth trends, such tourist flows are gaining ever more ground. However, Mediterranean fascinating small towns are subject to the decline in fashion and notoriety by tourists. In addition, these towns are at risk of intensive exploitation of their territories and may become over-equipped with infrastructures and services whenever their tourist attraction decreases. The project aims to intervene at the peak of the growing curve of tourist flows, making sure that these towns maintain the highest tourist flows and averting any risk of alteration of their fragile ecosystems. It was implemented from 2019 to 2023 and its main expected outcomes are the planning documents to address tourism marketing to produce new methodologies and technological tools which contribute in the strategy focused on stabilizing tourism flows. Therefore, the outputs are addressed to preserve the heritage of such towns which otherwise would see their existence compromised by the effects of overtourism. The challenge of the project is to associate small towns to jointly govern these processes, avoiding that the tourist flows cause collapse of the public services for excessive anthropization. In return, the preservation of local traditions and cultural heritage, has to be ensured. Its target audience are Local, regional and national public authority, as well infrastructure and (public) service providers.