Further discussions were held at the Council of the EU on Tuesday 16 March on the draft conclusions on European tourism over the next decade. The Council of the EU’s Working Party on Competitiveness and Growth discussed a revised version of the proposal put forward by the Portuguese Presidency at the end of January (see EUROPE 12640/21).
Amongst other things, the revised version introduces a paragraph describing “city tourism, business travel, the events sector” and the meetings, conventions and exhibitions industry as an increasingly important part of the tourism ecosystem. The draft conclusions now even identify a need to “re-design strategies for the future of these sectors”.
In another new development, the Member States would like the Commission’s presentation of its revised industrial strategy (see EUROPE 12664/28) to be followed, before the end of the first quarter of 2022 ,by a “detailed approach” to the chapter dedicated to tourism, “with actions and financing tools”.
The original proposal also suggested that a comprehensive overview of the funding available for tourism in the 2021-2027 EU budget should be launched by September 2021 at the latest. The revised version suggests that this should also be the case for the resources available under the Next Generation EU recovery plan.
The revised proposal states that this should facilitate access to information for businesses in the sector and for public authorities, and not just for “stakeholders”.
It should also be noted that the Member States seem keen to see tourism finally considered as an industry in its own right at European level. The conclusions also called on the Commission to mainstream tourism into EU policies. The term “tourism sector” has become “tourism ecosystem” and throughout the text emphasis is placed on the notion of ecosystem, the concept that forms the core of the European Commission’s industrial policy.
The draft conclusions can be found at: https://bit.ly/3lmL2n8 (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)