Bern, 11 September 2019

The aim of Destination Parks was to find a common ground on how to develop and promote a shared vision, strategy and implementation of sustainable forms of tourism in the Alpine protected areas. During the one-year project period, ALPARC organized one online and four in-person meetings. Partners from most of the Alpine countries actively participated in these events amongst others. They represented different kinds of protected area and park networks and thus, a large diversity of interests, ideas and needs.

The final conference took place in Bern, Switzerland and was hosted by the Swiss Parks Network.  ALPARC presented the final report’s main findings and openly discussed with all attendees. In order to highlight the cooperation that emerged (thanks to this project) between Valeurs Parcs, France and the Swiss Parks Network, the evolution of the respective projects and their partnership were presented. It is a very typical example of how the network provides its members with services, and in this case, through the linkage of actors formerly not in contact. 

The general outcomes of the conference embraced several ideas on how to continue the cooperation on the project’s goals. It was agreed that it is important to continue the cooperation on sustainable tourism and the role of protected areas. Several leading questions and general assumptions were identified: 

• What is the role of protected areas in tourism management? 
• Improving the communication of the roles and contributions of parks towards sustainable tourism
• Valuing the contribution of parks tourism towards sustainable regional development
• What are the particularities of tourism in Alpine protected areas? 
• Development of a common value system

A new project or second phase will be proposed on these topics.