Brussels, 19/10/2005 (Agence Europe) - In its concern to maintain the competitiveness of the European tourism sector, which is in full growth, the European Commission will be revealing its political guidelines on this matter on Thursday in Malta at its annual tourism forum. At world level, tourism is one of the main economic sectors, bringing in billions of euros and 700 million international travellers each year, half of this being in Europe. By 2020, the number of international tourists will have more than doubled, to reach 1.6 billion. European countries will benefit from this expansion on condition that they manage their tourism policy in an intelligent fashion. The European tourism sector, Commissioner Verheugen says, is in full expansion. “Our policy mainly aims to improve competitiveness and to generate more jobs through sustainable development of the sector”, he added. In its strictest definition (hotels, restaurants, cafés, bars, travel agencies and tour operators), the tourism sector employs around 7 million people in the EU in some 2 million businesses, most of them SMEs, and accounts for 5% of GDP. In its broader definition (including related sectors such as transport), it accounts for over 11% of GDP and over 20 million jobs. Europe, however, comes up against fierce competition today from tourist destinations such as Asia (India and China in particular) which have undergone rapid development, forcing European countries to rethink their policy that they now have to direct more to quality, sustainability and modernisation. The Forum of Malta will be examining these new challenges for Europe, including: - links between competitiveness and know-how (and ICT), improved regulations (with emphasis on the Services Directive proposal), sustainable development and tourism. During the forum that will bring together representatives of European, national and regional authorities as well as the civil society, companies will be able to express their views. On the sidelines of the forum, organised by the British EU Council Presidency and Malta, an informal meeting of European tourism ministers will be held in parallel at La Valette. For further information: http: //europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/services/tourism/tourism_forum/outcome.htm