The Ocean Alliance Group invites public and private sector stakeholders to the world’s first Sustainable Ocean Tourism Development Fair, the Plastic Ocean Summit. This summit will address and present a solution for Plastic Pollution based on the European Tourism Indicators System (ETIS).
This summit will be taking place October 17-18 in Croatia, focusing on major topics:
Environment
Economy
Social Pillars
Tourism Industry
The Ocean Alliance thinks this summit will be different.
Kristijan Curavic, CEO of Whiteflag, the co-organizer of the summit, explains:
Why is this summit different?
What new narrative will it bring to the table, and what will be its global impact? He also promises that this summit will bring about changes!
During the last global tourism or environmental summits, we learned about the threats of climate change and ocean pollution and what impact will occur from it if we don’t change our narrative of concrete measures.
In the last decade, no concrete measures have been implemented.
The COVID pandemic has increased the use of plastic products, pushing the world back with already inadequate measures and cosmetic initiatives to fix the situation.
Tourism accounts for 12% of global GDP and a staggering 1 in 10 jobs worldwide. Eighty percent of all tourism takes place in coastal regions. Tourism is also the lifeblood of many developing countries.
Plastic pollution in the oceans contributes to the devaluation of waterfront properties and reduced visitors and beach-goers.
Many beaches are incredibly crowded during the tourist season. They are particularly vulnerable since they are areas of plastic accumulation and one of the main inputs of this pollutant into the marine system through inadequate waste management, littering, and illegal dumping.
This summit is a follow-up on request by governments, the corporate sector, and associations to find a long-term, financially sustainable system that can deal with this immediate environmental, economic, and social threat
This Summit is about integrating solutions and taking measures not only during the conference but also before it.
Those entities attending the summit will learn about concrete measures and have the opportunity to sign MOUs between governments and the Ocean Alliance (OACM).
Environment and tourism industry stakeholders are the main carriers of this summit, which will, in collaboration with governments from all over the world, redefine and co-create new modern development policies in sustainable tourism.
EU ETIS will take a global lead in the next millennia’s development, merging so far two different terms into one ( Economy & Environment ), which can no longer coexist without each other.
We must understand there is no economy without environmental preservation, and EU ETIS will, through its program and entirely new conference approach, ensure that all tourism stakeholders understand and integrate this philosophy to keep the tourism sector afloat and sustainable.
One of the EU ETIS’s main objectives is to launch its primary and most valuable asset – a new global directive for the tourism sector:
The Certified SAFE Marine Area for Human and Marine Life.
This is re-launching the most neglected tourism sector service, clean marine debris, and plastic-free coastal area.
This is the key element of the EU ETIS Summit:
Create and expand with the government and corporate sector these so-called plastic-free marine areas, helping the tourism sector financially maintain them, creating jobs and ensuring the nation’s economic growth through environmental preservation.
To support nations who develop sustainable tourism industry, OACM will donate 50 Million of CSMA coastal certification value to those nations who decide to create and expand CSMA areas before and during the EU ETIS Summit,
The idea is to make this first global summit physically reduce the plastic content in recreational tourist areas.
The organizers are expecting heads of state and ministers to present this OACM solution to the general global public and tourism industry stakeholders.
A key focus will be on members of the Small Island Developing States
During the EU ETIS Summit, the OACM will support and provide consultations between the government and the corporate sector to accelerate their national efforts to develop a sustainable tourism industry.
More details on the summit can be found at https://www.plasticoceansummit.com/