📋 Tender Overview
Minister for Equality, Employment, Tourism and Culture, the Hon Christian Santos GMD MP, presented Gibraltars Nature Positive Tourism pilot to an international audience at the Tourism Innovation Summit in Seville.Minister Santos took part in a panel bringing together six speakers from destinations, NGOs and the tourism sector to showcase practical initiatives aimed at protecting and restoring the natural environment through tourism.Daniel Turner of ANIMONDIAL introduced the Nature Positive Tourism (NPT) approach, before Minister Santos outlined how Gibraltar is putting the concept into practice through a pilot project being developed in collaboration with ANIMONDIAL.The Minister explained why Gibraltar represents a particularly valuable location in which to trial the approach, given the close relationship between the destinations tourism product and its natural environment, combined with the challenges of managing high visitor numbers within a small geographical area.He focused on the practical challenges of balancing tourism growth with the protection of Gibraltars natural heritage, as well as the opportunities for the tourism sector to become an active part of the solution.Minister Santos highlighted the potential for improved visitor management, closer collaboration between tourism and environmental stakeholders, greater awareness amongst visitors and businesses, and practical measures that enable tourism activity to contribute positively to conservation.He also outlined what the Government hopes to achieve through the pilot, including identifying measurable changes that can strengthen the protection of Gibraltars natural assets while supporting a resilient, high-quality and sustainable tourism sector.The presentations were followed by a moderated discussion between the six speakers, exploring how destinations can move from traditional sustainability models towards approaches in which tourism delivers a measurable positive contribution to nature.Minister Santos participation at the Summit provided an opportunity to showcase Gibraltars work internationally and to share the destinations experience of testing the Nature Positive Tourism approach at destination level.
