By Pako Rodríguez, head of the tourism area, and Sandra Campos, tourism consultant. (Original publication in Spanish)

FiturNext is the Observatory of good practices in the context of sustainable tourism of FITUR, whose objective is the identification, promotion, and distinction of projects globally with positive impact on the tourism sector. 

The Observatory continues to grow and create its own space in the tourism sector. During this past edition FiturNext 2023, more than 400 professionals attended the stand during the days of Fitur to learn more about how tourism can contribute to the regeneration of the natural environment. For this, more than 200 initiatives at the international level addressing this objective were analyzed. From among them, and with the help of our Advisory Council, twelve finalists were selected, and subsequently, 3 winning initiatives were awarded: Plogging Tour, Wave of Change (Iberostar Group) and Green Pepper Travel. All of them showed a high index of replicability as well as a high level of impact and environmental contribution.

During the three professional days, more than 20 dialogues, presentations, keynotes, and round tables were held, with more than 40 speakers. These sessions focused on various areas of the sector that contribute to leaving the natural environment in a better state than it was before the tourism experience, both through the participation of residents and visitors. In this way, spaces for debate and synergies were generated among attendees, experts, and initiatives that confirmed the concept of replicability of good practices as a vehicle for achieving better tourism. On this link you can download our FiturNext 2023 report.

For its part, during the open days of Fitur, the Smart Tourism Hub workshop took place, attracting 25 university students from different universities in the capital of Madrid. These students worked in groups for three hours with the methodology Pentagrowth from Ideas for Change, building different disruptive scenarios of the future of tourism. The group with the best idea was awarded the online Pentagrowth training.

After all this, the new FiturNext 2024 challenge was launched on how tourism can contribute to territorial revitalization. 

As a closing to this edition, we will have a new FiturNext webinar on March 14 at 5:00 PM (CET), where we will feature the winning initiatives and Alicia Montalvo, Manager of Climate Action and Positive Biodiversity at CAF, the Development Bank of Latin America, a partner of FiturNext. You can register through this link.

FiturNext 2024 Challenge 

The FiturNext 2024 Challenge focuses on territories. Depopulation is a demographic and territorial phenomenon referring to the aging and depopulation of predominantly rural areas, caused by the mass exodus from these areas and the concentration of inhabitants in urban and nearby zones to the same. 

These emptied spaces, converted into "lonely areas" ("Aree interne" in Italian or "Udkantsdanmark" in Danish) suffer from lack of basic local services, accessibility, mobility, and connectivity, and generate what is termed as “demotanasia,” understood as the slow and silent disappearance of the population from a territory. This phenomenon not only worsens the quality of life for people, but also contributes to the abandonment of crops, desertification and acidification of territories, and neglect of environments against fires.

According to the United Nations, in 2018 55% of the world’s population lived in cities, a percentage that is expected to increase to 70% by 2050. These cities consume 75% of energy resources and emit 80% of the carbon that pollutes the environment, simultaneously causing the saturation of spaces and services. 

If we look at specific territories, the situation is even more extreme. In Europe, less than 30% of the population resides in rural areas (which comprise 80% of the territory), while in America that figure hovers around 17%.

In Spain, rural areas cover 84% of the territory - the depopulated Spain - (which is not empty, as it does not present a voluntary component), yet it is only home to 15.9% of the population. In fact, Spain is the fourth country in Europe with the highest number of municipalities at risk of depopulation. By way of example, we can cite the population density of Nordic countries (4.9h/km²) or Finnish Lapland (1.8-2h/km²), which largely share the sociodemographic characteristics of the towns of the Celtiberian Mountains (7h/km²) or of the Celtic Stripe (4.5h/ km²), even finding enclaves with a density of 1h/km².

For all these reasons, the FiturNext Observatory launches the 2024 challenge in harmony with the SDGs 8, 10, and 11, in order to find good practices that contribute to the balance and territorial revitalization through tourism. The SDG 8 focuses on the development of policies for the conception of tourism that promotes employment and local consumption. Furthermore, SDG 10 is related to the reduction of inequalities and the generation of support for settlement in rural areas. Finally, SDG 11 highlights the importance of balance between rural and urban along with the need to foster the existence of sustainable communities and cities.

To understand the positive effect of the different initiatives explored, we present 9 impact indicators that help measure their contribution to the challenge:

• Visitor growth: the increase in visitors to the territory is vital for the viability of the project and the beginning of territorial revitalization.

• Increase in tourist services: the rise in visitors stimulates the creation of new tourist services that meet the needs of the growing demand. 

• Increase in connectivity: the growth of the two previous indicators leads to improvements in territorial connectivity, both in terms of transportation or access and communications.

• Number of new businesses created: the stimulation of demand leads to the creation of new business offerings that, while not being tourist-oriented, contribute to meeting the needs of supply and consequently, of demand.

• Commerce: all of the above results in an increase in commercial activities in the territory and its neighboring areas.

• Employment: thanks to the increase in new services, businesses, connectivity, and commerce, the need for labor is generated, thus increasing the supply of jobs in the territory.

• Population growth: the increase in the previous six indicators  contributes to attracting population to these spaces, increasing the number of inhabitants in them.

• Increase in children in the territory (annual ratio): with the growth of the population from outside, natural population growth begins in the destination, increasing the number of children and young people there, thereby securing the future of the territory.

• Increase in basic services (schools, health centers, pharmacies..): the growth of the population in the territory and the generation of commercial activities, connectivity, and employment, naturally lead to an increase in basic services to meet the needs of the new population under conditions of safety and sustainability.

FiturNext 2024 Call

You can now register your initiative focused on territorial revitalization. The deadline will be open until August 31, 2023. 

The projects that reach the finals will participate in the activities that will be developed at our stand in Fitur 2024 and subsequent actions and will benefit from the visibility provided by being part of the FiturNext community due to its impact in the media and the synergies created among its participants. 

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