LOCATIONS

In a sector such as cruise tourism, which has been clearly growing in recent years worldwide and in particular in the Mediterranean area, local actors must have the tools to face the challenges deriving from it and the impact on the urban fabric of the port cities it touches in terms of mobility, safety and preservation of the environmental and cultural heritage.

The three-year project LOCATIONS - Low Carbon in Cruise Destination Cities, financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Interreg MED 2014-2020 programme, was part of this framework. Its aim was to improve the logistics and mobility of cruise destination cities by optimising the flows of goods and passengers deriving from this type of tourism, supporting local public administrations in the creation of low-carbon mobility plans.

To this end, it was envisaged the implementation of measures in favour of traffic decongestion and sustainable mobility defined through modular intervention packages that will initially be drawn up at a local level, taking into account the peculiarities of the territory, and later transferred and tested in a larger sample of cities in the Mediterranean area.

Lead partner of the project, which envisaged the involvement of seven European port cities such as Trieste, Ravenna, Lisbon, Malaga, Zadar, Rijeka and Durres, was Area Science Park, which coordinated 19 partners representing technical bodies, port authorities, city administrations, regions and provinces from Italy, Croatia, Spain, Portugal and Albania.

At the local level, the Port Network Authority of the Eastern Adriatic Sea (Port of Trieste) and Area Science Park developed low-carbon sustainable transport plans with the support of the Municipality of Trieste and the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region, actions that were subsequently included within the broader framework of the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (PUMS) and Sustainable Energy Action Plans (SEAPs).

Project phases (start 01.11.2016 - end 31.10.2019)

• Analysis of the impact on urban and peri-urban traffic generated by the presence of cruise ships in each city
• Identification of possible intervention actions specific to each city
• Selection of actions to be developed also through the involvement of stakeholders
• Realisation of feasibility plans
• Transfer of models, methodologies, solutions
• Capitalisation of results through the involvement of regional bodies in charge of the management of European structural and investment funds

Lead partner

AREA Science Park