{"id":29280,"date":"2026-09-27T14:47:29","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T14:47:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.coolvoyagesardinia.com\/?st-import=fc3e0f62425370f370baa3bde2bb7c0e"},"modified":"2026-09-28T07:59:50","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T07:59:50","slug":"10-align-investment-regulation-and-incentives-with-sustainable-outcomes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.coolvoyagesardinia.com\/en\/10-align-investment-regulation-and-incentives-with-sustainable-outcomes\/","title":{"rendered":"10. Align Investment, Regulation and Incentives with Sustainable Outcomes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sardinia has significant opportunities to finance tourism-related investment, but funding should not reward expansion in isolation. Public finance, planning approvals, tourism incentives and business-support programmes should consistently favour projects that reduce environmental pressure, improve accessibility, create quality employment, protect nature and generate local value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Regional ERDF programme for 2021\u20132027 has a total allocation of approximately \u20ac1.58 billion. It includes \u20ac44 million for strengthening culture and sustainable tourism in economic development, social inclusion and social innovation, as well as more than \u20ac220 million under the priority for integrated urban and territorial development, including culture, natural heritage, sustainable tourism and safety. This provides a substantial basis for strategic alignment.[<a href=\\\"https:\/\/old.sardegnaprogrammazione.it\/index.php?xsl=1227&amp;s=35&amp;v=9&amp;c=94390&amp;na=1&amp;n=10&amp;ni=1\\\">old.sardegnaprogrammazione<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"\\&quot;wp-block-heading\\&quot; wp-block-heading\">Problem<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Investment decisions can unintentionally deepen existing pressures. For example, new accommodation may increase water demand in already constrained areas; coastal infrastructure may weaken dunes or increase flood exposure; incentives may support seasonal low-wage activity without improving workforce housing or skills; and destination marketing may stimulate demand where infrastructure and ecological capacity are already exceeded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A sustainable strategy needs a different test for public support: not \u201cWill this attract more visitors?\u201d but \u201cWill this improve destination resilience, resident wellbeing, ecological condition and locally retained value?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"\\&quot;wp-block-heading\\&quot; wp-block-heading\">Investment principle<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Adopt a <strong>Do More Good, Do No Harm<\/strong> framework for tourism-related investment. Every publicly supported project should:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"\\&quot;wp-block-list\\&quot; wp-block-list\">\n<li>Demonstrate compliance with environmental, planning, accessibility and labour requirements.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Avoid increasing material pressure on water-stressed, climate-exposed or ecologically sensitive locations without credible mitigation.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Deliver measurable public value beyond private commercial gain.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Show how benefits will reach local workers, suppliers, communities, culture or conservation.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Monitor outcomes after completion, with support conditional on transparent reporting.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"\\&quot;wp-block-heading\\&quot; wp-block-heading\">Proposed direction<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Create a <strong>Sustainable Tourism Investment Framework<\/strong> that applies consistent eligibility, scoring and monitoring criteria across grants, investment contracts, public-realm projects, marketing support and destination-development programmes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Priority measures should include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"\\&quot;wp-block-list\\&quot; wp-block-list\">\n<li>Introduce a sustainability-screening requirement for all material tourism investments, covering water, energy, waste, mobility, climate exposure, biodiversity, accessibility, housing and workforce implications.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Make public support conditional on baseline data, measurable targets and post-investment reporting.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Prioritise refurbishment, adaptive reuse, energy and water retrofits, heritage restoration and upgrading of existing accommodation before greenfield expansion.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Reward projects that reduce per-guest resource use, extend the operating season, create quality employment and purchase from local suppliers.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Give additional weighting to projects in under-served areas only where ecological capacity, transport, community support and service readiness have been demonstrated.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Use concession, licensing and public-procurement rules to reduce single-use materials, improve accessibility, protect coastlines and require fair labour practices.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Support shared infrastructure that benefits multiple businesses and residents: water-reuse systems, low-impact mobility, waste prevention, accessible public spaces, trail maintenance, visitor information and climate adaptation.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Establish dedicated finance and technical assistance for small and medium-sized enterprises, which may lack the capacity to prepare complex sustainability investments.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Create blended-finance mechanisms, loan guarantees or revolving funds for energy efficiency, renewable generation, water resilience, circular systems and accessible upgrades.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ring-fence a proportion of visitor-derived revenue\u2014where such charges are introduced\u2014for conservation, public services, community projects and destination-management capacity.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"\\&quot;wp-block-heading\\&quot; wp-block-heading\">Funding routes<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The framework should coordinate rather than duplicate existing programmes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\\\"wp-block-table\\\"><table class=\\\"has-fixed-layout\\\"><thead><tr><th>Funding route<\/th><th>Strategic use<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>PR Sardegna FESR 2021\u20132027<\/td><td>Sustainable tourism, cultural and natural heritage, accessibility, innovation, integrated territorial development and resilience investment<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Regional investment contracts<\/td><td>Larger tourism-accommodation investments screened against sustainability, employment and local-value criteria<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Municipal and destination budgets<\/td><td>Public realm, visitor management, mobility, maintenance, accessibility and service capacity<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>National and EU programmes<\/td><td>Climate adaptation, biodiversity, rural development, skills, inclusion, digitalisation and circular economy<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Private capital and finance<\/td><td>Accommodation retrofits, renewable energy, water efficiency, low-impact mobility and business innovation<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Visitor-revenue mechanisms<\/td><td>Conservation, restoration, ranger services, waste management, local transport and site maintenance<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Region\u2019s 2025 investment-call framework already included tourism-accommodation proposals under PR FESR 2021\u20132027 investment contracts. Future calls should explicitly include the full sustainability and public-value criteria outlined above, rather than treating them as secondary commitments.[<a href=\\\"https:\/\/www.regione.sardegna.it\/atti-bandi-archivi\/atti-amministrativi\/bandi\/175024012427989\\\">regione.sardegna<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"\\&quot;wp-block-heading\\&quot; wp-block-heading\">Selection criteria<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Projects should be assessed using a transparent weighted scorecard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\\\"wp-block-table\\\"><table class=\\\"has-fixed-layout\\\"><thead><tr><th>Assessment area<\/th><th>Illustrative questions<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>Environmental resilience<\/td><td>Does the project reduce water, energy, emissions and waste intensity? Is it appropriate for local climate and ecosystem risk?<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Nature and landscape<\/td><td>Does it avoid habitat damage, respect coastal and landscape character, and contribute to restoration where relevant?<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Social inclusion<\/td><td>Is it accessible, safe and beneficial for residents, workers and diverse visitor groups?<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Economic quality<\/td><td>Does it create year-round value, local procurement, quality work and viable small-business opportunities?<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Place fit<\/td><td>Is it consistent with local capacity, transport, housing, infrastructure and community priorities?<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Delivery credibility<\/td><td>Are the baseline, funding plan, skills, permits, timeline and monitoring arrangements robust?<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"\\&quot;wp-block-heading\\&quot; wp-block-heading\">Relevant stakeholders<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Regional Departments of Tourism, Planning, Environment, Economic Development, Labour, Culture and Social Policies; Centro Regionale di Programmazione; municipalities; destination-management organisations; public utilities; banks and ethical-finance providers; tourism businesses; chambers of commerce; universities; worker representatives; community and environmental organisations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"\\&quot;wp-block-heading\\&quot; wp-block-heading\">Possible indicators<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\\\"wp-block-table\\\"><table class=\\\"has-fixed-layout\\\"><thead><tr><th>Indicator<\/th><th>Suggested measurement<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>Sustainable allocation<\/td><td>Share of tourism-related public investment screened and approved under the framework<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Resource efficiency<\/td><td>Water, energy, emissions and residual-waste reduction per guest-night from supported projects<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Climate and nature resilience<\/td><td>Projects meeting climate-risk, biodiversity and landscape criteria; habitat restored or protected<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Inclusion<\/td><td>Accessible rooms, facilities, routes and services created or upgraded<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Local value<\/td><td>Local procurement, local ownership, quality jobs and year-round employment supported<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Leverage<\/td><td>Private capital mobilised per euro of public funding<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Compliance<\/td><td>Share of projects completing post-investment monitoring and meeting agreed targets<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Public benefit<\/td><td>Visitor-revenue funds reinvested in conservation, community services and destination management<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"\\&quot;wp-block-heading\\&quot; wp-block-heading\">Delivery horizon<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Immediate.<\/strong> Apply the framework first to new regional tourism calls and investment contracts, then align municipal grants, public procurement and destination programmes. Within two years, publish a portfolio-level assessment showing not only expenditure and projects funded, but the environmental, social and economic outcomes achieved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sardinia has significant opportunities to finance tourism-related investment, but funding should not reward expansion in isolation. Public finance, planning approvals,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4381,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[214],"tags":[215,216,217,218,219,220],"class_list":["post-29280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sardinia-destinations-papers","tag-beaches","tag-dunes","tag-forests","tag-marine-habitats","tag-rural-landscapes-and-cultural-ecosystems-underpin-sardinias-visitor-appeal-and-local-quality-of-life","tag-wetlands"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/www.coolvoyagesardinia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Default_Tell_me_about_a_charming_British_girl_beautiful_and_re_0.jpeg",2376,1344,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.coolvoyagesardinia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Default_Tell_me_about_a_charming_British_girl_beautiful_and_re_0-150x150.jpeg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.coolvoyagesardinia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Default_Tell_me_about_a_charming_British_girl_beautiful_and_re_0-300x170.jpeg",300,170,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.coolvoyagesardinia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Default_Tell_me_about_a_charming_British_girl_beautiful_and_re_0-768x434.jpeg",768,434,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.coolvoyagesardinia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Default_Tell_me_about_a_charming_British_girl_beautiful_and_re_0-1024x579.jpeg",1024,579,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.coolvoyagesardinia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Default_Tell_me_about_a_charming_British_girl_beautiful_and_re_0-1536x869.jpeg",1536,869,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.coolvoyagesardinia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Default_Tell_me_about_a_charming_British_girl_beautiful_and_re_0-2048x1158.jpeg",2048,1158,true],"trp-custom-language-flag":["https:\/\/www.coolvoyagesardinia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Default_Tell_me_about_a_charming_British_girl_beautiful_and_re_0-18x10.jpeg",18,10,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Coolvoyage Sardinia Crew","author_link":"https:\/\/www.coolvoyagesardinia.com\/en\/author\/coolvoyage-sardinia-crew\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Sardinia has significant opportunities to finance tourism-related investment, but funding should not reward expansion in isolation. Public finance, planning approvals,...","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coolvoyagesardinia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coolvoyagesardinia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coolvoyagesardinia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coolvoyagesardinia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coolvoyagesardinia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29280"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.coolvoyagesardinia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29363,"href":"https:\/\/www.coolvoyagesardinia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29280\/revisions\/29363"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coolvoyagesardinia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coolvoyagesardinia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coolvoyagesardinia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coolvoyagesardinia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}