Val di Sole – Some Bright Ideas in the Valley of Sustainable Tourism
On Friday, Alpine Pearls travelled to beautiful Trentino to give a presentation to local young adults. This is part of a larger activity funded by the autonomous province of Trentino and led by cultural association LàFuori to integrate and engage this age group (18–35) in local activities and politics, so that they can positively shape the future of their communities.
Alongside the event, a trip to Slovenia, including a pitstop in Bled, will also take place, and they will travel together to assess what our precious Pearl is doing there to promote sustainable tourism.
In the presentation, we defined what sustainability looks like in tourism, gave a short history of Alpine Pearls, explained how our Member Communities and aspiring Pearls-to-be have to prove their commitment to sustainability goals, and followed this with some great case studies of sustainable initiatives such as the “Salt Road” in Limone Piemonte, the Wildflower Festival, the First Mile Project in Bohinj, and the super thought-out mobility solution Bled Bus, in of course, Bled, Slovenia.
Sustainability is meeting the needs of today without taking away the ability of future generations to provide for themselves. The UN’s sustainability goals provide an excellent orientation for the sort of things we should be looking out for. True sustainability can only really be achieved when social, environmental, and economic needs are met; if one pillar is absent, that is already enough to void the definition of sustainability.
With this in mind, the participants took part afterwards (after pizza) in a session to design their own sustainable tourism destination. They split up into four teams, and after half an hour or so, they were ready to present. They sketched out their ideas on paper with coloured pens and at the same time wrote down a description of the physicality of the place — the demographics, geography, and main tourist attractions, for example. They were also told to include how they were going to tackle gender and social inequality, mobility, waste management, and other key themes.
Three of the four groups reimagined something that can be described as an idealised version of their own region. The fourth group was a little more abstract in their thinking and imagined a secluded retreat high in the mountains of a hypothetical Iceland for themselves. Either way, the intention was there to come up with creative ideas of how they want to shape their future and make their surroundings, county, country, and world a place that will still offer their children and grandchildren the opportunities they had — if not more.
Thank you again to LàFuori for inviting us, we wish a safe and inspirational trip to Slovenia!