Hmm… Could you tell us a little bit more about it? 

Costa Nostrum – Sustainable Beaches protocol consists of three main pillars; the initial study of the certified beach incorporates suggestions on the sustainable development and management of the beach based on its capabilities, infrastructures and its characteristics. Secondly, the beach assessment-certification is next, with 39 objective criteria – indicators (social, economic and environmental). Finally, the third pillar is the worldwide promotion of the beach through our website and mobile app, which also are a free online information portal for the Mediterranean tourists, in regard to the infrastructure, classification and characteristics (natural – technical) of all certified beaches, allowing visitors to search & choose for an awarded beach depending on their personal requirements avoiding unnecessary wanderings.

What problem/issue are you trying to solve?

Mediterranean beaches constitute an important natural heritage for the region and a worldwide tourism destination, as every summer approximately 200 million tourists visit the Mediterranean coastline, while this number is going to reach up to 355 million until 2025. However, although they are also a highly sensitive ecosystem, until today, no properly structured effort has been made towards a sustainable development and management of the Mediterranean beaches, resulting in a variety of environmental, economic and social consequences, such as biodiversity loss, pollution of coasts from wastes, excess of the beach carrying capacity and many more.

What’s the solution provided by Costa Nostrum?

The Costa Nostrum – Sustainable Beaches certification standard is designed so that all Mediterranean beaches, public or “privately owned”, whether organized or not, can be classified as Costa Nostrum sustainable beaches, provided that they meet the essential criteria of the certification standard. The most important result of our project is the environmental-sustainable and qualitative improvement of the award-winning beaches, thus protecting the environment, raising awareness for a very fragile ecosystem (beach), as well as improving the services provided and, as a result, improving the satisfaction of visitors/tourists, too. In this way, we inform the bathers about the environmental importance of the coastline, the protected species, how to protect and preserve them, resulting in a very strong bond and a personalized/thematic tourism experience, which is quite beneficial for the environment, the local community, the economy and, of course, for the visitors.