About the project

CIVITAS DESTINATIONS sought to integrate sustainable tourism and mobility strategies through the development of mobility solutions in six European island locations: Elba in Italy, the Portuguese island of Madeira (and its capital Funchal), Limassol in Cyprus, Rethymno on the Greek island of Crete, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in Spain, and the Valletta Region of Malta.

Significant seasonal tourist flows put great pressure on the transport systems of the islands, with this seasonality leading to serious swings in population and transport demand. This called for innovative solutions in order to improve mobility patterns and the quality of life for citizens and tourists alike.

The six locations applied a set of uniform methodologies in order to develop and implement sustainable mobility measures and actions, with a view to offering clean and green transport. For close to five years, 28 partners from nine Member States - with the strong support of local politicians - worked together on designing, developing, and implementing more than 75 measures and actions.

As part of their solutions, the DESTINATIONS cities:

• developed Sustainable Urban Mobility and Logistics Plans (SUMPs and SULPS);
• created attractive and accessible public spaces;
• fostered behavioural change towards shared mobility and e-mobility (including by providing new infrastructure);
• managed mobility demand and re-allocated urban space in favour of sustainable modes;
• raised awareness on the worth of sustainable mobility; and,
• fostered attractive, efficient and accessible public transport.

Taken together, these measures have helped reduce the tourism-derived pressure on transport systems across the DESTINATIONS project sites and saw broad groups of stakeholders unite to drive a shift towards more sustainable modes. 

Ultimately, DESTINATIONS proved that the tourism and transport sectors can work together and that sustainable mobility is a highly touristic service - forging a path for other holiday destinations to follow as they attempt to go green. Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, DESTINATIONS also supported touristic cities to rethink tourism in times of travel restrictions.

Find out more

See individual assessments of all measures in measure evaluation reports from the project locations: Elba, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Limassol, Madeira, and the Valletta Region.

Website Facebook Twitter