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Greenways promote and support the development of sustainable tourism by ensuring that tourist activities along them are environmentally-friendly and contribute to natural and cultural heritage conservation. Greenways build environmental awareness by attracting visitors, who want to learn about local heritage values and contribute to their protection. Growing interest among visitors mobilizes those living along Greenways to play a more direct role in conserving natural and cultural heritage values and to share also in the economic benefits of a revitalized local economy. Greenways provide also a means for mobilizing funding for designing and implementing community-based initiatives and projects aimed at conserving natural, cultural and landscape values as a basis for local economic development.Greenways in Poland are being implemented in line with two basic concepts: sustainable tourism and eco-tourism. Greenways are consistent with the principles and criteria for sustainable tourism adopted in various European and international declarations, conventions and programmes, most notably those adopted in Agenda 21 for the Travel and Tourism Industry in 1996.
The Polish Greenways programme contributes to building a momentum for an international eco-tourism movement through active participation in relevant international conferences and programmes. One example is the Global Eco-Tourism Conference organized every 5 years by the International Eco-Tourism Society, which brings together organizations active in eco-tourism at the local and national level from across the globe. This initiative is a follow-up of the International Year of Eco-tourism declared by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Tourism Organization in 2002.
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Sustainable Tourism refers to all forms of tourism development and management of tourism activities, which help sustain environmental, social and economic values, conserving cultural and natural heritage unchanged for future generations. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), ‘new tourism' is based on partnership between private and public sectors, which is focused on generating benefits not just for tourists, but also for local communities. Sustainable tourism is sensitive to and respectful of natural, social and cultural values. Eco-tourism refers to travel to and interpretation of undisturbed or little disturbed natural areas with the aim of accessing and using natural values (as well as past and present cultural values associated with them) in ways that help conserve them, do no environmental harm and create opportunities for generating social and economic benefits by actively involving local or indigenous communities. According to the 2002 Quebec Eco-tourism Declaration, eco-tourism is a subset of sustainable tourism, which is distinguished by an emphasis on contributing actively to the conservation of natural and cultural heritage; including local and indigenous communities in its planning, development and operation, contributing to their well-being; interpreting the natural and cultural heritage of the destination to visitors; and lending itself better to independent travellers, as well as to organized tours for small size groups. |
Marketing environmentally-friendly tourism
Individual greenways provide a framework or context for helping local community partners (non-governmental organizations, community groups, schools, agro-tourism operators etc.) work with each other, as well as with tour operators, to develop new tourism and recreation opportunities targeting individuals and organized groups with an interest in sustainable tourism. Each greenway offers a growing diversity of destinations and activities for the interested traveler, including folk art workshops, outdoor education and learning, active recreation opportunities, as well as local and international bicycle tours, hiking and kayaking holidays.
All tourism activities developed and promoted along Greenways share the basic principle of making use of local resources and encouraging involvement of the whole community. Greenways initiatives and projects are created using local resources when it comes to providing tourism services, accessing cultural heritage, marketing local heritage products and promoting community-based initiatives. Whether travelling alone or as part of a group organized by a tour operator, the emphasis is on promoting learning and discovery in the spirit of eco-tourism. The motivation is to help visitors, as well as local people, gain an appreciation for the natural, cultural, ethnic and economic values of the places located along a greenway. Greenways are opportunities to meet interesting people - local leaders actively working to conserve cultural and natural heritage as a basis for revitalizing the local economy and contributing to making sustainable development a living reality
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Greenways Networks
