With the support of the European programme Interreg-MED, the DestiMED Project has created this free online calculator to measure the Ecological Footprint of ecotourism itineraries focusing on the 4 main different aspects of an ecotourism package, i.e.

* Accommodation

* Food and Drinks

* Mobility and Transfer

* Activities and Services

Visit the calculator at this link:

https://www.meetnetwork.org/calculator

What is the Ecological Footprint?

The Ecological Footprint is an indicator and a resulting methodology developed by Global Footprint Network to measure the ecological assets required by a given population to produce the natural resources it consumes and to absorb its waste, especially carbon emissions.

One of the most remarkable outcomes of the DestiMED Project has been the adaptation of this methodology to ecotourism packages in protected areas. Moreover, the tool offers specific information on:

* The EF of the whole ecotourism package (expressed in gha per package)

* The EF per tourist per day (expressed in gha per tourist per day)

How To Use DestiMED's Ecotourism Footprint Calculator

To get started,  you will need to register on the platform by creating a new account. Before carrying out this assessment, we recommend appointing a specific person from the protected area (or tour operator) staff to act as the “surveyor”. This person should be responsible for collecting data from the involved service providers and the one to have access to the Calculator.

In order to prepare for the data collection, we suggest downloading the questionnaires contained in the Calculator User Manual.

DOWNLOAD THE USER MANUAL AND QUESTIONNAIRES HERE

What data are required to complete this assessment?

For each ecotourism package, you will be requested to provide the number of days and of participants. In each of the categories (accommodation, food & drinks, mobility & transfer activities & services) the questions will focus on the type of supply and how it is provided.

It is therefore strongly recommended that the surveyor liaises with each service provider involved in the package (all hotels, restaurants, providers of transport and guides/providers for each activity) and have at least one in-person visit them to ensure data is collected as precisely as possible so that all questions are answered (it should be a data collection on field). It is likely that service providers will need more time to check internally among managers, workers and/or technicians for gathering precise information and the exact data requested. Finally, the results will be displayed on the park’s dashboard.