Brussels, 04/03/2011 (Agence Europe) - HOTREC, which represents the hotel, restaurant and café industry in Europe, presented the hotel classification system which it launched in December 2009 to a group of representatives of the European Union at a seminar in the European Parliament on Tuesday 1st March. The initiative, the “Hotelstars Union”, aims to introduce greater harmonisation in the hotels sector across Europe. HOTREC President Kent Nyström told the EU representatives of the hotel industry, in non-EU countries too, to work on a common classification system which will highlight the good points of the various establishments and make it easier to compare. So far, 10 European countries are taking part in the system, representing a market of 18,000 classified hotels. Antonio Preto, head of Industry Commissioner Antonio Tajani's private office, congratulated HOTREC on this “important achievement towards a common European classification system”. He said that this industry-driven initiative brings clarity and comparability to hotel offers in Europe. He further added that such a common classification system is “an important tool when promoting Europe as a single destination”, one of the main objectives of Vice-President Tajani in the building of the new framework for a true European tourism policy. Therefore, he urged HOTREC to continue its endeavours and share the results with the Commission. European Parliament rapporteur on the Commission Communication on Tourism Carlo Fidanza also complimented this initiative, “which will certainly bring a real European added value”. He underlined the importance of taking into account diversity of offer across Europe when setting common criteria.
Recent statistics published by the statistical office Eurostat reveal that tourism, and more especially nights spent in hotels, showed signs of recovery in the EU in 2010. After two successive annual declines of 0.3% in 2008 and 3.7% in 2009, the number of nights spent in hotels and similar establishments in the EU27 increased by 2.8% in 2010 to 1.6 billion nights. The number of hotel nights spent by residents in their own country rose by 1.1% and hotel nights spent by non-residents grew by 5.1%. The decrease in the number of hotel nights spent in the EU27 began in the middle of 2008 and peaked in January-April 2009, then slowed down during the rest of 2009. Among the member states, the highest numbers of nights spent in hotels in 2010 were recorded in Spain (268 million nights, +6.4% compared with 2009), Italy (245 million, -0.8%), Germany (229 million, +5.8%), France (196 million, +2.4%) and the United Kingdom (166 million, -2.1%). These five countries accounted for more than 70% of the total number of hotel nights spent in the EU27. The number of nights spent in hotels in 2010 increased in most member states, with the exceptions of Romania (-8.7%), Greece (-2.3%), the United Kingdom (-2.1%), Slovenia (-1.0%) and Italy (-0.8%). The largest increases were recorded in Estonia (+14.1%), Latvia (+11.6%), Lithuania (+11.1%) and Malta (+11.0%), and the smallest in Austria (+2.2%), France (+2.4%), Cyprus (+3.1%) and Hungary (+3.3%).
On Monday 28 February, the European Parliament (EP) industry, research and energy committee adopted its opinion on the report “Europe, the world's No 1 tourist destination - a new political framework for tourism in Europe”. In it, the committee highlights the importance of deseasonalising tourism and calls for a major campaign to promote tourism in Europe, particularly business tourism. EPP Group rapporteur Gaston Franco (France) welcomed the particular attention given in the report to enhancing the status of careers in tourism and to university and vocational training, whether by putting in place specialised university courses or improved recognition of diplomas and qualifications at European level. He was also pleased that Euro-Mediterranean cooperation on tourism could be promoted, just like the role of the outermost regions and the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT) as windows on Europe throughout the world. (I.L./transl.rt)