Krakow, 06/10/2011 (Agence Europe) - European ministers responsible for tourism left the informal Council in Poland with two keywords in their dossiers - innovation and attractiveness. The European tourist strategy can be summarised by these two words alone.
With the “Destination Europe” programme, member states have made a commitment to developing their respective national tourist industries to make Europe “the number one tourist destination in the world”. This goal was expressed by the Polish minister, Katarzyna Sobjerajska, who explained that to succeed with this challenge, new instruments would be required. The host for this event also explained that “innovation in tourism is vital. It is by innovating that we can propose new offers to tourists. We need to think about training tourism managers as well. Managers must be better prepared to welcome customers.” Petra Hedorfer, who heads the Travel Commission, is putting a lot of stock into new technology in an effort to stimulate competitiveness in the tourism sector.
In this context of economic, financial and budget crises, the tourism sector must fight back. Such is the opinion of Commissioner Antonio Tajani, who stated that “tourism has been weakened by the crisis but we must continue to work on developing growth and creating a real European market”. With regard to European attractiveness for abroad, the commissioner explained that certain countries are being more targeted than others: China, Russia, Brazil, Chile and Argentina - “these countries are important markets to European tourism. We have to develop an attractiveness strategy towards them”. He also announced that he was seeking to implement the same kind of project in Israel, which is expected to be announced in November.
A first step was taken with the signing of the protocol for an agreement for “50,000 tourists” between the Commission, Poland, Italy, Lithuania, France and Spain. This involves a pilot study to increase tourist numbers between South America and Europe. The main tour operators and airlines have co-signed this protocol, as have the ECTAA (the group of national travel agents' and tour operators' associations within the EU). An agreement is expected to facilitate a promotional pricing system for beneficiary countries. (VW/transl.fl)