Tourism Around Europe

The future of European ports has been discussed during the Sea Ports Conference that took place in the city of Sopot (Poland) from 10th to 11th May 2012. The main topics under debate was port financing and investment, the most important enabling factors behind port development.

Siim Kallas, Vice-President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Transport, participated to the event. In his closing speech, he stressed the importance of ports as the gateways for Europe’s exports and trade flows, and vital links in the transport logistics chain.

He underlined that “ports are expected to grow; they are already the transit point for up to 90% of Europe’s freight exchanges with the rest of the world and 40% of those in the internal market. To cope with the rising demand, ports will need to adequate public and private financing as will other parts of Europe’s transport infrastructure”. He also remarked that “first of all is needed to identify where that growth and demand will actually leave our many hundreds of seaports in the next 20 years”.

European Commission on Transport objective is to build a single joined-up transport area for Europe with the Trans-European Network, and ports acting as major logistics hubs linking waterborne and land-based transport, have a major significance on those policies development.

“With so many different operating models and lack of clear EU-wide rules which, in some cases, prevents a fair competition environment, it is now time to set a more coherent European ports policy. Commission is about having greater transparency and fewer restrictions with port operators and service providers, to remove barriers for new entrants wanting to tender fairly and openly for port services, regarding fair competition as healthy” stated Vice-President Kallas.

The potential of European ports could be better exploited by focusing more on its connections with tourism. Tourism activities are a source of growth for Europe’s ports, especially from an economical and environmental point of view. As a result, EU has welcomed a relatively new phenomenon into the EU tourism industry: cruise tourism.

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In the last Plenary Session, on the 10^th of May 2012, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) adopted a resolution on the future of regional airports and air services in Europe.

The resolution highlights the need to unlock the potential of small airports by integrating them in the Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-T). Regional airports appear as essential for territorial cohesion and social and economic development, especially in regions where other means of transport are lacking. They attract new businesses and offer opportunities for regional tourism as well as specialized freight transport.

However, the crisis has taken its toll on regional airports, said the Rapporteur Philip Bradbourn during the debate. They are “currently priced out of the market, leading to greater consolidation between major airports and airlines, the result being less choice and higher prices for customers” he added. “This must be counteracted by removing economic barriers and better defining their role in the transport network”, he said, calling on the Commission to speed up work on the “Single European Sky” initiative and to design a network in which regional airports could help to alleviate capacity crunches in bigger airports.

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On the 10^th of May 2012, the European Council adopted a decision officially designating Donostia-San Sebastián (Spain) and Wroclaw (Poland) as European Capitals of Culture for 2016.

The European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, Androulla Vassiliou congratulated the two winning cities and declared that “this flagship cultural initiative is a unique opportunity to reap enormous cultural, social and economic benefits, as well as to raise the international visibility and profile of the cities and of the Member States themselves”.

Vassiliou, before the European Council proceeded to the official designation, also warned that “the formal designation is not in itself a guarantee of success. It is in fact the beginning of a long and challenging but eventually very rewarding process” and encouraged to “make the event a part of a longer term strategy for the culture-led development of the city”. The Commissioner also stressed, as one of the keys to success, the unwavering commitment of the public authorities during the preparatory phase.

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Until 13^th July 2012, an open consultation will be available on the EC website in order to have the views of public and private organisations, and individuals on a possible EU action for ensuring the quality of tourism services in Europe.

The European Parliament has called on the European Commission to assess the feasibility of a European quality tourism label, in order to create an “umbrella label complementary to national labels”. Since the end of 2010, the Commission carried out the preparatory works on the implementation of a European Tourism Quality Label (ETQ Label) with the close involvement of the public and private stakeholders, and the organisation of several workshops, a targeted consultation and an open conference on the subject.

As a result of these preparatory works and taking stock of the new competences of the EU in the area of tourism, the Commission is now proposing to further develop this initiative. The ETQ Label would have three objectives: it could serve as a management tool for tourism businesses; it could be an information tool for consumers, and it could function as a competitive instrument for Europe. Continue reading »

Forty-hundred participants from 32 countries met in La Massana (Andorra) at the 7th World Congress on Snow and Mountain Tourism, organized jointly by the UNWTO, the Government of Andorra and the seven Andorran Comun (local authorities). The Congress, that took place from 11^th to 12^th April 2012, gathered tourism experts and professionals to discuss the strategies to boost snow and mountain destinations, with a special focus on the role of new technologies.

Participants agreed that new technologies – from the Internet to social media and mobile technologies – are becoming important tool to promote and attract new visitors to snow and mountain destinations. Mountain tourism companies are more obliged than ever to manage their business on the Internet and to ‘accompany’ visitors on their real/virtual journey.

The Congress has been an occasion for established and emerging snow and mountain destinations to exchange best practices in product development, promotion and human resources. A number of case studies has been presented such as the ski resorts surrounding  the Korean city of Ulsan that are encouraging visitors to use their smart phones to share their experiences or the ski resort of Flaine, (France) whose promotion of free activities through social networks has resulted in a significant increase in summer visitors. Continue reading »

“Measuring efficiency and management in tourism” was the addressing topic of the annual conference of the European Chapter of the Travel and Tourism Research Association (TTRA). The event took place in Bilbao from 18th to 20th April 2012.

The purpose of the TTRA Europe 2012 conference was to convene international scholars, researchers, policy makers and other tourism professionals to explore and address the issues of performance measurement and performance management in tourism contexts.

Discussions about the present and future of the tourism industry took place with very reputed guests which led the main keynote presentations, as in the case, in order of appearance, of Mr. Zheng Xiang (Assistant Professor College of Merchandising, Hospitality & Tourism, USA), Mr. Richard Perdue (Professor and Department Head of Hospitality and Tourism Management at Virginia Tech, USA), Mr. Daniel R. Fesenmaier (Professor, School of Tourism & Hospitality Management at Temple University) and Ms. Aurkene Alzua (Executive Director of the Competence Research Centre in Tourism, CICtourGUNE, Spain), representing host organizer member. Continue reading »

On the occasion of the UNWTO Conference on The Future of Mediterranean Tourism that took place in Djerba (Tunisia) from 16th to 17th April 2012, Mediterranean states agreed to strengthen their cooperation to consolidate tourism in the region.

During the meeting representatives of 33 countries in the Mediterranean and beyond discussed the future of tourism in the region, especially in light of recent political developments, economic uncertainty and the ongoing challenge of climate change.

The Conference has been also an occasion to sign the Djerba Declaration. In the document participants call upon public authorities, private operators and reserach centers to cooperate to develop Mediterranean tourism, especially in the following areas: training in tourism occupation, at both the vocational and university levels; establishing standards or labels, paying particular attention on the quality of tourism services and sustainability; development of cruise activity; exchanging of good practices; conducting studies on market trends. Continue reading »

The Tourism for Tomorrow Awards, organized by the World Travel & Tourism Council, are aimed at recognising best practice in sustainable tourism within the Travel & Tourism industry worldwide.

The Awards focus on four key categories. This years’ winners have been announced yesterday:

Destination Stewardship: Destination Røros, Norway
This award goes to a destination – country, region, state or town – that comprises a network of tourism enterprises and organisations which show dedication to, and success in, maintaining a programme of sustainable tourism management at the destination level

Global Tourism Business: Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts, Singapore
This award recognises best practices in sustainable tourism at a large company level.

Conservation: Inkaterra, Peru
Open to any tourism business, organisation or attraction, able to demonstrate that their tourism development and operations have made a tangible contribution to the conservation of nature.

Community Benefit: Saunders Hotel Group, USA
This award is for a tourism initiative that has effectively demonstrated direct benefits to local people.

More information on the 2012 winners are available at: www.tourismfortomorrow.com

How can the Cohesion Policy contribute to the transition to green economy? A research recently carried out by a consortium led by the Institute for European Environmental Policy with the support of the European Commission, explores this issue. The publication assesses the impact of Cohesion Policy investments 2007-2013 on the environment and how sustainable development have been included into planning, implementation and follow-up at strategic, programming and policy level.

The study focuses on four key environmental themes: climate change and clean energy; sustainable transport; conservation and management of natural resources; and sustainable consumption and production.

The publication includes case studies, analysis of the available data at EU level, in particular in relation to expenditure as well as recommendations on how the integration of sustainable development into Cohesion Policy could be improved.

The study shows that the cohesion policy can bring benefits to the tourism sector by creating growth opportunities in this field and improving attractiveness of places for investors, workers and businesses. The research stresses the importance to invest on Natura 2000 sites: this can improve the  quality of life and environmental sustainability of communities adjacent to the sites and create opportunities for eco-tourism.

The study is available at: ec.europa.eu/regional_policy

The Global Partnership for Sustainable Tourism has recently organised its Partners’ Symposium and 2nd Annual Conference. The event took place on March 12-13, 2012 in Seoul and was hosted by the Ministry of Environment, Republic of Korea with support from the Government of France and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Almost 200 people attended the Partnership Symposium and 43 members participated in the Annual Conference. Participants included the local diplomatic corps and delegations from the regions of Asia-Pacific (Korea, Cambodia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand); Africa (Cameroon, Madagascar, Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal, South Africa), Europe (France, Germany, U.K., Norway, Portugal, Spain), Latin America (Brazil, Costa Rica, Peru) and USA.  UN delegates included participants from UNEP offices in Paris, Thailand and Korea; UNWTO and UNIDO. Continue reading »