The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Environment, on the occasion of today’s celebration of World Tourism Day, highlights the importance of this sector and is committed to the promotion of sustainable nature tourism as an added value of the tourist offer to combine the conservation of the natural environment and contribute to the improvement of the socio-economic conditions of rural populations.

In Spain, the progressive interest of travellers in experiencing a different kind of tourism has boosted the practice of nature tourism in recent years. The annual overnight stays associated with nature tourism amount to 35 million, while more than 500,000 foreign tourists choose our country as a mountain tourism destination.

In this sense, it is estimated that this type of tourism is the one that grows the most annually, accounting for 15% of the global movement of travelers. According to The International Ecotourism Society, in Europe alone, 20% of tourists choose green destinations and 10% plan their trip sustainably.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Environment, through the Biodiversity Foundation, has intensified its efforts to promote this type of tourism, taking advantage of its potential as a solid support for the protection of biodiversity and the natural environment.

To this end, projects are financed that integrate the protection of species with the development of green tourism, creating points of union with the various actors involved, such as landowners, land stewardship networks or the companies themselves in this tourism sector.

One of the most ambitious projects in this regard is “Land Stewardship and Sustainable Ecotourism in the Natura 2000 Network”. This initiative, developed in the Serra de Tramuntana (Mallorca), has carried out advisory work to the agrotourism of the Land Stewardship Network for the implementation of an offer based on respect for the natural environment.
 
Among its objectives has also been to obtain commitments from property owners to develop good practices that improve their tourism product while preserving the environment.
 
Another of the most relevant projects, “Wetland conservation through an international network of sustainable tourism: The Route of the Geese” seeks the protection of the environment through the creation of a tourist route of great ornithological and scenic interest. An itinerary that follows the migration of geese through the Spanish wetlands to their last stop in Doñana.
 
Initiatives that seek to develop green tourism as a measure to support the conservation of various animal species also stand out. This is the case of one of the support actions undertaken around the LIFE+ Red Quebranthuesos project, in which this type of tourism has been used as a method to disseminate participation in the conservation of biodiversity.
 
Actions have also been undertaken that seek to improve environmental quality and help rural accommodation to increase its sustainability by calculating its carbon footprint. The aim is to express its indicators in functional units (night, person, year) by creating a standard methodology applicable to this subsector.
 
Aid to companies that develop in this environment is enhanced with the project “Promotion of social entrepreneurship in the green economy of land stewardship”, in which the link between the conservation of the territory and biodiversity is increased through the production of agricultural and rural goods and services. Services including green tourism and aimed at areas of high natural value located in areas where territorial rebalancing can be generated, a source of wealth and competitiveness in rural areas.