Stage 1: Targeting sustainability
Held on 7 May 2021, the Forum marked the start of a major open consultation with the aim of reinventing urban tourism and events in Bordeaux and its metropolitan area with the direct involvement of visitors, residents and socio-professional actors who shape the territory.
The event was attended by over 115 representatives of associations, local authorities, institutions and the tourism and events industries. A presentation of the strategy for the years to come was followed by an inspirational talk with Prosper Wagner from Oiseaux de Passage as special guest, who talked in particular about how to develop global, singular and balanced tourism in Bordeaux.
Stage 2: Start of the consultation
During this first participatory Forum, participants were invited to express their views on six topics:
- Welcoming and supporting positive-impact leisure tourism
- Guaranteeing a responsible events industry and the legacy of professional encounters
- Structuring and stimulating local tourism
- Promoting responsible and local consumption and preventing waste
- Making tourism a driver for inclusion
- Paying specific attention to public safety
These topics had been identified during previous discussion and opinion sessions carried out as part of surveys on perceptions of tourism in Bordeaux Métropole.
Stage 3: Participatory workshops
The participants in the Forum were divided into three groups, each comprising residents, visitors and tourism and event professionals in order to be as representative and diversified as possible.
During this discussion time in small groups, the participants were invited to express their views via an online chat with a workshop leader. The sessions were organised in such a way as to allow everyone to speak on an equal footing and provide a space for free, spontaneous and friendly discussion and exchange.
No less than 780 ideas, challenges and proposals were written or communicated in the online chat.
Stage 4: What next?
These written suggestions then formed one of the bases for reflection for the future working groups, which met on 2, 3 and 4 June 2021.
A report on the reflections launched during the first participatory Forum was written by the Open Tourism Lab, which is accompanying the Bordeaux Métropole Tourism and Convention Office in conducting this open governance and these workshops in particular.
After these conclusions, the events and reflections of the future participatory workshops on leisure tourism (2 June), business tourism (3 June) and local tourism (4 June) could be written.
