Dr George Vaggelas delivered an invited presentation at the Regional Seminar Tourism and Sustainable Development in the Mediterranean that was held in Genoa on 12-14 of December 2011. George's presentation Cruise tourism: Economic benefits, sustainable development and port-city relations included facts regarding the importance of cruise tourism as an economic generator for the local economies, the potential impact of cruise on sustainability issues as well as the value of port-city relationships for increasing the attractiveness of a city as a cruise destination.
The seminar gathered representatives of various tourism sectors, governmental officials and academics from Mediterranean countries. The last day of the seminar, the participants were informed on the tourism indicators for the Mediterranean Strategy for Sustainable Development, a project that is in process by Plan Bleu.

Plan Blue is one of the stakeholders involved in the mechanism for environmental regional cooperation within the framework of the United Nations Environment Programme’s Mediterranean Action Plan (UNEP/MAP). One of the main tasks with which it is entrusted is to produce information and knowledge in order to alert decision-takers and other stakeholders to environmental risks and sustainable development issues in the Mediterranean, and to shape future scenarios to guide decision-taking processes.

Find more for the Plan Bleu here.