PROMOTING EUROPE AS A TOURISM DESTINATION

Tourism promotion is higher on the agenda of the European institutions than ever before.

The European Commission is supporting the promotion of Europe through a number of initiatives including a communications strategy, funding for the European Travel Commission's campaigns in long-haul markets, and the 50,000 Visitors initiative to increase off-peak tourism between Latin America and Europe.

The European Parliament's tourism task force of MEPs interested in tourism has announced its support for the creation of a "European brand".  It plans to develop its own ideas and suggestions for this in the second half of this year.

On top of this, the European Commission is planning to propose a new European tourism quality label in April/May.  The label is intended to complement existing national, regional and industry labels, making it easier for tourists to plan their travel to and within Europe.

A new role for the EU in tourism

The latest in the line of treaties governing the way in which the EU works, the Lisbon Treaty entered into force in 2009.   It gives the EU a formal role in tourism, complementing the work of member states and their regions. 

This is the first time that the EU has been granted specific tourism powers.  Previously, the sector was regarded as anational responsibility with any EU activity requiring the unanimous support of member-state governments.

These new powers have resulted in the European Parliament taking a stronger interest in tourism and being given a voice in the shaping of tourism policy.  They have also coincided with the appointment of a European commissioner, Antonio Tajani, keen to champion the sector in a way that no previous commissioner has been. 

It is the EC that is responsible for the development and implementation of EU tourism policy.  The current policy dates from 2010.  It can be found here:http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/tourism/files/communications/communication2010_en.pdf

Promotion of Europe in long-haul markets

Destination Europe 2020

The EC and the European Travel Commission (or ETC, the grouping of national tourism organisations which promotes Europe to long-haul markets) signed a "joint declaration" in 2011, pledging to work together "in the field of tourism and the promotion of 'Destination Europe".

In 2012, the EC granted ETC €1 million to support its activities in long-haul markets for a period of 18 months.  According to ETC, the Destination Europe 2020 programme aims to strengthen the image of Europe and to promote the continent and its domestic destinations.  Much of the marketing will be done online with an emphasis on pan-European themes.  ETC is pledging to work closely with industry partners.

Parallel to this programme, the EC has appointed Mostra, a communications agency, to work with it and ETC in developing a new international communications strategy for Europe.  This goes under the name of Europe - whenever you're ready.  The website is at http://europa.eu/readyforeurope/.

Mostra's campaign is scheduled to run until the end of the year and is designed to "promote Europe as an attractive, diverse destination for all seasons".  It is targeted at markets in Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Russia, India and China with management being devolved to agencies in those countries.  The four main elements are media relations, social media, B2B meetings and press events.  The campaign is being run in association with ETC's own online presence at visiteurope.com.

50,000 visitors

Launched with a great fanfare in 2011, this initiative is the brainchild of Commissioner Tajani.  It is intended to encourage the development of off-peak tourism between Latin America and Europe - in both directions - and is being run in association with the Europe - whenever you're ready campaign.

The EC has signed agreements with the governments of Argentina, Brazil and Chile already.  Mexico, Uruguay and Colombia have also expressed interest in taking part. 

Within the EU, ten countries have signed up.  These range from Italy and Spain to Lithuania and the Slovak Republic.

Trade partners include ETOA, ECTAA (the European travel agents' and tour operators' association), Amadeus, TUI and a number of European airlines. 

Within the EU, the emphasis is on packages offering travel to more than one European country at special low-season rates. National tourism organisations and industry partners have been collaborating on these.  The first packages were for the period October 2012 to March 2013.  It is not yet known how many tourists have responded to the offer.

The initiative takes its name - not, incidentally, the name being used in the package branding - from Commissioner Tajani's aspiration to generate 25,000 extra visitors to Europe and to encourage 25,000 Europeans to travel to Latin America.

A summary of the project's aims and progress is available here -http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/tourism/files/50k/general_background_en.pdf

Europe brand

First there was Europe - a never-ending journey by ETC (used in visiteurope.com campaigns).  Then came Europe - whenever you're ready.  And then what? 

According to ETC, the results of this second campaign will help to set a longer-term strategy for promoting Europe in international tourism markets.  The subject is also of interest to MEPs on the tourism task force (see below).  They are planning to develop their own ideas later this year and have said that they will involve industry and destination representatives in this process.  ETOA has already signalled its willingness to contribute to this work.

China

The European Commission regards the harnessing of this market for European tourism as one of its top priorities.  Together with the ETC and the World Tourism Organization, it organised a China Day in Copenhagen in November 2012.  This event was addressed by, amongst others, the Chinese ambassador to Denmark.  ETOA was also represented.  The outcome was agreement by public and private sector interests to work together in sharing best practice and developing products that meet the expectations of Chinese visitors.

European quality label

This is another initiative to which Commissioner Tajani attaches much importance and which is presented by the EC as crucial in encouraging travellers to visit Europe.  The EC's proposals are expected to be published in April or May.  They will then be scrutinised by the Council (member states) and the European Parliament before implementation.  There will be opportunities to influence the final shape of the scheme during this scrutiny period.

It will be an umbrella label for those existing (and future) national, regional or industry schemes which meet its criteria.  Members of those schemes will not have to pay extra to display the European label, but the schemes themselves will doubtless incur costs in the accreditation process.

IT WILL NOT BE…

a pan-European classification scheme.

COVERAGE

It remains to be seen what sectors it will cover.  Some supporters of the idea have called for it to cover more than just accommodation businesses.

WHY HAVE THE LABEL?

The EC say that the label will benefit Europe, the industry and consumers alike:

• Europe - because it will be a "competitive instrument and a promotion tool [aimed] at improving the profile of Europe as a set of high-quality destinations" and giving Europe the "edge" as it strives to retain its status as the world's "number 1" tourism destination in face of competition from rival and/or emerging destinations.

• The industry - because it will provide them with a "management tool" to monitor and improve their "quality performance, enabling them [..] to avoid the repetition of costly mistakes [and] to gain the confidence of consumers and business partners".

• Consumers - for whom it will be "an information tool".  The "consumer-oriented approach" taken to developing the criteria will, it is claimed, both protect and benefit consumers.

OTHER EUROPEAN TOURISM POLICY ISSUES

European Parliament's tourism task force

Enjoying the new powers it has been given to influence European tourism policy, the European Parliament has created its own tourism task force to follow policy developments in the EU and monitor the implementation of the EC's 2010 tourism strategy (see above).

The task force was created by the parliament's Transport and Tourism Committee, the committee responsible for overseeing all parliamentary work on transport and tourism issues.  It is chaired by an Italian member (MEP), Carlo Fidanza.  Its work programme for 2012/2013 has been published on the parliament's website:http://www.europarl.europa.eu/document/activities/cont/201211/20121107ATT55111/20121107ATT55111EN.pdf

This work programme highlights the range of activities that count as tourism policy.  These are not just the obvious initiatives like tourism promotion.  They are also about raising awareness within both the parliament as a whole and other European bodies about the way that tourism is affected by policies and legislation which are not specifically aimed at it.  Examples include taxation policy, consumer affairs, employment legislation and internal market legislation.  This is important work.

ICT and tourism business initiative

Another project being championed by Mr Tajani and funded by the EU is one on tourism and new technologies. The overall aim is to boost the competitiveness of  small and medium-sized tourism enterprises (SMEs) by helping them to get better access to these new technologies and to use them successfully in their business activities.

There are three parts to this initiative:

• Development of a new online platform connecting tourism suppliers (tour operators, travel agents) and businesses at destinations (such as accommodation providers and attractions).  The aim is to ensure that SMEs can easily participate in the digital value chain without having to bear heavy costs.

The contract to develop this project was won by two of ETOA's sister organisations in Brussels, ECTAA (travel agents) and HOTREC (hospitality sector).  They have called the project Tourismlink - find out more at www.tourismlink.eu Scheduled completion date: mid-2014.

• Creation of a B2B portal website to help tourism enterprises (mainly SMEs) set up, manage and promote their business with access to the latest information and communiation technology tools.  Completion of the project is expected at the end of this year.

• Overseeing all of this will be a "high-level group" (HLG) of senior business executives drawn from the tourism and ICT sectors.  The group will be chaired by Commissioner Tajani.  The date of its first meeting has not been announced yet.

The HLG has been conceived as a forum for Mr Tajani to have formal meetings with tourism industry representatives.  While it is intended to deal largely with technological issues, it will also have a more general policy role.

Supporting the high-level group and preparing the issues for discussion is a group of "sherpas" which met twice in 2012 and is likely to meet again before the first HLG meeting.  ETOA is represented on this group.  Issues discussed so far have included e-visas, fair practices in online distribution, review websites and the accessibility of tourism services.

Virtual tourism observatory

The European Commission is planning to create what it calls a "virtual tourism observatory" providing information for policymakers, researchers and tourism "stakeholders".

Current plans are for the observatory to include a database of statistics, tourism reports and analysis, and information on policy developments and best practice in the EU member states.

European Commission progress reports

For a detailed overview of all the EC's tourism policy initiatives and projects, look at the updates published on the tourism pages of the EC website.  The most recent of these is the one published in October 2012:http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/tourism/files/communications/com_implementation_rolling_plan_revised_en.pdf

Source:ETOA