Europeans upbeat about 2010 season. According to a new Eurobarometer survey, “The attitudes of Europeans towards tourism 2010”, Some 80% of Europeans continue to travel for their holidays according to a new Eurobarometer survey on 'The attitudes of Europeans towards tourism 2010'. Only 20% of over 30,000 randomly selected citizens were almost certain that they would not travel in 2010, which is significantly below the proportion of non-travellers in 2009 (33%). EU citizens increasingly prefer to spend their holidays in traditional tourist destinations (57%), while 28% would rather go “off the beaten track” to emerging destinations. Tourism is one of Europe's most important service industries, accounting for 5% of Europe's GDP and 6% of employment. The most important findings are: 1) continuing trend towards discovering Europe and own country: again in 2010, 50% of Europeans intend to spend their holidays in their own country or in another EU country; 2) more confidence to be able to finance their holidays: about half of EU citizens who are planning to take a holiday in 2010 felt they will have sufficient funds (46%) - this is 5 percentage points higher than in 2009. However, as in 2009, 10% said they have serious financial problems that could impact their holiday plans; 3) travelling remains popular: about two-thirds (65%) of EU citizens travelled for leisure in 2009, and travelling is most popular amongst residents of Norway (84%) followed by Finland (83%), The Netherlands (79%) and Ireland (78%). "Local attractiveness" is cited as the major factor (32%) when choosing holiday destinations, followed by "cultural heritage" (25%) and "entertainment possibilities" (16%); 5) Seeking "rest and recreation" (37%) is the main motivation for EU citizens to travel, followed by "sun and beach" (19%) and "visiting friends and relatives" (17%); 6) arranging holidays themselves: the number of EU citizens who organise their main holiday themselves further increased in 2009 to 58%; Candidate Countries Croatia (83%) and Turkey (82%) lead in this respect; 7) the most popular choices: Spain (10.4 %) was already the most popular destination in 2008 and 2009 and dominates also the current plans made for 2010. Spain is closely followed by France (9.9%) and Italy (9.2%). However, 17 % of EU residents planning to go on holiday in 2010 have not yet decided on the destination: http: //ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/tourism/index_fr.htm (I.L.)