More than 40 experts from 12 countries have come together to give specific recommendations to those responsible for the beaches of Latin America and southern Europe, in response to the crisis generated by COVID-19 in the tourism sector. They propose to generate a protocol of return to the beaches, so that they are safe, sustainable and orderly.
The IBEROAMERICAN BEACH MANAGEMENT AND CERTIFICATION NETWORK – PROPLAYAS has just made a document publicly available with the possible scenarios, impacts and recommendations for managing Ibero-American tourist beaches in the context of COVID-19.
This document is a work of 44 authors, who defined recommendations from multiple areas, such as environmental, economic and psychological. Experts seek to give recommendations for a sector that has completely closed its activities, with losses of millions of dollars, especially destinations such as Cancun or the Dominican Republic, where there are thousands of empty rooms due to the lack of tourists on the beaches.
The report is divided into two parts, the first with a comprehensive analysis of the impacts and scenarios of tourism on beaches as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which affects tourism activity in almost all Latin American countries. It also defines 16 specific and specific recommendations to strengthen beach management, turning the crisis into an opportunity for the local economy and the conservation of ecosystems. Actions such as reducing the density of users on the beaches, or increasing confidence levels in tourists, are recommended by PROPLAYAS experts.
In the second part of the document, points of view, recommendations and lines of action to face the pandemic on the beaches are mentioned, such as carrying capacity, sand aeration and collaborative economy. Authors from 12 countries analyze the situation in their countries, as well as in the rest of Latin America, in addition to Portugal and Spain.
It also has two special contributions, one related to the management program that should be implemented on each beach and the other to the recommendations that the Italian National Salvage Service made to the government of that country.
In the words of Camilo M. Botero, General Coordinator of the PROPLAYAS Network, “We have mobilized as quickly as possible, to provide this tool on time to all those responsible for the beaches, who are currently detained and without guidelines. clear how to act”.
The document titled SUN AND BEACH TOURISM IN THE CONTEXT OF COVID-19. SCENARIOS AND RECOMMENDATIONS provides technical reflections on the health crisis and its subsequent crises to beach managers, spas, municipalities and tourists. In the words of the PROPLAYAS Coordinator “It is a document so that the decisions that governments must make NOW are supported by the knowledge and experience of dozens of experts, being a guide for the officials that are held in each entity.”
The document has been published in Spanish and Portuguese, and can be downloaded free of charge on the PROPLAYAS website (www.proplayas.org/covid19) or request it to the mail red.proplayas@gmail.com. Also available from the first week of May will be a consultation space for experts from this network, in which all managers on the continent will be able to ask their questions so that they can be answered by the experts.
The Iberoamerican Beach Management and Certification Network is a virtual community present in 16 countries in Latin America and Southern Europe, which groups 59 working groups and more than 350 members from multiple disciplines. The PROPLAYAS Network is made up of groups of scientists, civil society organizations, companies and public officials, all with some direct relationship to the beaches.
See the Report:
