Commission tables new strategy to boost tourism in EU

Publication date: 21 March 2006

Globalisation, demographic changes and the evolution in transport are decisive factors in driving the rapid growth of the European tourism industry. About two million tourism enterprises employ about 4% of the total EU labour force, representing approximately eight million jobs. Although Europe is the most visited region of the world, international tourist arrivals are growing at a lower rate than the world average. 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 (COM(2006) 134) to improve, in partnership with all stakeholders, the competitiveness of the tourism industry.

com2006_134_tourism.pdf (156 KB)

The main elements of the new policy:
1. 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.
2. Improved use of available European financial instruments: Tourism will continue to benefit greatly from the financial support offered by the various European financial instruments (for more details, see annex).
3. “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.
4. Better regulation: Tourism-related legislation will be part of the Better Regulation process (see Memo 05/340).
5. Enhancing the understanding of the importance of tourism by providing all decision-makers with high quality data.
6. 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.

”Visit Europe” - A new European Tourist Destinations web portal: To contribute to the marketing of Europe, the Commission financed the creation of a web portal (www.visiteurope.com). It 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.

7. 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.

In implementing this policy, the Commission will develop a close partnership with Member States’ authorities and the tourism stakeholders. Partnerships must be a central component of action at all levels (European, national, regional and local; public and private). As a general rule, European tourism policy should be complementary to policies carried out in Member States.

Tourism is a cross-cutting sector impacting on many other sectors, such as transport, construction, retail and on the numerous sectors that produce holiday products or provide leisure and business travel-related services. Although some big international companies contribute to this sector, it is mainly dominated by SMEs. In its most narrow definition the tourism industry creates more than 4% of the EU GDP. When the links to other sectors are taken into account, the contribution of tourism to GDP is estimated up to 11% and it provides employment to more than 24 million people (12% of total labour force).

For more information:
- COM(2006) 134: A renewed EU Tourism Policy: Towards a stronger partnership for European Tourism
-  Memo/06/134: How EU financial instruments support tourism
- Speech/06/186: Tourism - Key to Growth and Employment in Europe/Günter Verheugen
- Commission website on tourism

com2006_134_tourism.pdf (156 KB)

memo06134_tourism.pdf (62 KB)

speech_verheugen_tourism.pdf (73 KB)