Coastal cities and towns are facing urbanization challenges. This goes for those large cities exposed to population growth and mass tourism, but also those coastal towns facing the opposite – loss of population and work places; reduced competitiveness concerning attracting citizens and tourists. The urbanized city-areas have been subject to big changes in the last decades, involving modification in housing and infrastructures, change of destination of ports and docks as well as intensive use of coastal areas due to the changing models of tourism from a low-profile or niche tourism to mass and cruise- tourism. Enhancing coastal and maritime tourism in Europe, while maintaining the original atmosphere and population diversity is one challenge; a second is preserving and/or strengthening the environmental and place-based qualities of the coastal cities and towns. These are two key challenges of most European countries.   mml

photo: Destination Fyn Klyngen, Denmark. Project : Bike Island 2020

What networks and actions of innovation and research are necessary to ensure that coastal cities prosper and benefit from sustainable tourism and at the same preserve their cultural, environmental and social inclusionary qualities? You want to use your creative mind to develop solutions that best serve individual citizens, your local community and the European society at large. You want to make sure that your needs and expectations are taken into account when local, national and European decisions and innovations are being developed. GET STARTED! FOLLOW OUR WORKSHOP AND SHARE YOUR IDEAS ON LINE The workshop is organised by AAU and Cyprus Neuroscience and Technology Institute using the method of Structured Democratic Dialogue. It will involve citizens, scientists, business representatives, entrepreneurs, local authorities and policy makers in an open dialogue. Together, you will define a common vision and a roadmap of solutions and actions to face this challenge. The results, together with the outcomes of the other MARINA workshops in Europe, will be freely accessible on the MARINA Web Knowledge Sharing Platform, used for identifying lessons learned and best practices and disseminated at European policy conferences.   Registration and questions: Jesper Rohr Hansen , jer@sbi.aau.dk, Aalborg University

May 30 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Aalborg University CPH, Frederikskaj 10B, Room 024 Building C, 2400 Copenhgen South