Sustainable management and tourist promotion of natural and archaeological heritage in the Adriatic Caves
Fascinating, mysterious, enchanting: the caves are an attractor factor of tourist flows. ADRION area is well established tourism destination with intensive short summer season, but limited tourism in other parts of the year. However, potentials for developing all year tourism destinations are many and natural, cultural and historical heritage sites can play an important role: this is the main challenge of the project. The main project intervention objective of the Adriaticaves project is to establish and promote natural and archaeological heritage in caves of the ADRION as an alternative all year long tourism product.The project focuses on the sustainable development of accessible caves including ecotourism, establishment of a network of touristic caves in the ADRION and also conservation of karst areas and the other caves not open to the public with habitat 8310 (92/43/EEC dir), threatened by climate change and illegal dumping. The aspects of training, creating new professions to improve socio-economic conditions of mountain areas, transferring of best practice among PPs will play a key role and will contribute to the achievement of the general objective of the strategic theme: to develop a joint cross-border sustainable tourism platform within the ADRION area aiming at implementation of new models for sustainable tourism management as a development engine in the area and reducing the seasonality of tourism through the marketing of the unique natural and cultural potential that can be visited throughout the year. Moreover the project also follows some specific EU legislation on caves and karst landscapes. These specific habitats are protected under the Dir. 92/43/EEC and host species protected under the same Directive and the 09/147/EU: the project tackles the problem of tourism regulation in order to avoid conflicts with protected habitats and species, includes activities to evaluate the impact of visitors and the carrying capacity of caves. Main outputs of the project are: 1) the new brand route of caves "Adriaticaves", a new international brand for minor and sustainable tourism caves, linked to protected areas or sites of natural or historical interest, for holistic and cultural tours all-round, to be used as a motor for the tourist development of the Adrion areas; 2) the Charter of Caves, an international agreement to be signed by cave operators, with a discipline to ensure the sustainable tourism use of visitable caves, respect for the natural and historical heritage in them and the implementation of visits of high educational and cultural value; 3) the international Action Plan for habitat 8310, an action plan drawn up in accordance with the Directive 92/43/EEC to ensure the conservation of habitat 8310 "Caves" protected by the directive and to ensure that the activity of tourist use of caves is in compliance with the European legislation, guaranteeing both the managers and the visitors and, ultimately the same Adriaticaves project.