Website visiteurope.com
The European Commission has tabled a proposal to improve the competitiveness of the tourism industry, and has launched a new website aimed at non-European visitors called www.visiteurope.com
The European tourism industry is growing rapidly, thanks to globalisation, demographic changes and the evolution in transport and around 4% of the EU labour force is employed in the sector by around 2 million companies.
However, when the links to other sectors are taken into account, the contribution of tourism to European GDP is estimated up to 11% and it provides employment to more than 24 million people (12% of total labour force).
New competitors
Although Europe is the most visited region of the world, international tourist arrivals are growing at a lower rate than the world average, research has found.
New competing destinations are emerging, which further increase the competition the EU is facing at a global level.
Faced with these challenges, the Commission has tabled a proposal to improve, in partnership with all stakeholders, the competitiveness of the tourism industry.
Speaking at the European Tourism Ministers’ Conference “Tourism – Key to Growth and Employment in Europe” in Vienna on Tuesday, Commission Vice-President Günter Verheugen said “Our proposals add European value to the efforts by member states. They will help to promote the EU as unique tourism destination in a more effective and co-ordinated way.”
The main elements of the new policy
* More policy-coordination: to make sure that policy initiatives affecting tourism do not hamper the competitiveness of the sector. Member States and tourism stakeholders will be regularly consulted, as for example, on the forthcoming Green Paper on Maritime Affairs covering coastal and marine tourism.
*Improved use of available European financial instruments: Tourism will continue to benefit greatly from the financial support offered by the various European financial instruments
*”A European Agenda 21 for Tourism” to promote tourism sustainability: The Commission will present a proposal for an Agenda 21 , by 2007, based on input from the Tourism Sustainability Group, composed of the tourism stakeholders.
*Better regulation: Tourism-related legislation will be part of the Better Regulation process.
*Enhancing the understanding of the importance of tourism by providing all decision-makers with high quality data.
*Better promotion of European destinations: Globalisation has opened up new opportunities to attract tourists from new markets (such as China, Russia and India) able to afford high value vacations.
*Improving the visibility of tourism: The Commission will continue to work in close partnership with all involved actors to promote the visibility of this important industry through events organised by the EU Presidencies and the Annual European Tourism Forum.
www.visiteurope.com
The new web portal which the Commission financed includes practical information about Europe, such as travel planning (transportation, weather and calendar) or recommendations on “where to go” and “what to do” and links towards national web sites. It will be managed by the European Travel Commission.
The involvement of tourism-related SMEs to the hosting of cultural and sporting events held in Europe will be effectively promoted.
