Brussels, 20/04/2006 (Agence Europe) - On 19 April the Assembly of European Regions (AER) announced in Valencia in Spain the creation of its internet portal on sustainable and quality tourism. Thomas Carlsson Head of tourism at the Regional Council of Västerbotten in Sweden and President of the quality tourism group at AER declared in a press statement, “We are very pleased to be in the Communitat Valenciana, one of the 13 leader regions in this initiative”. He added, “European regions are incredibly diverse and concentrate on a relatively small surface a huge amount of natural, cultural and artistic treasures. It is the aim of the portal to help regions to take advantage of them wisely, by promoting the exchange of successful experiences and good practice between regions, and by strongly supporting relevant partnerships. We are convinced that sustainable quality tourism can have a positive economic impact on the regions”. Mr Carlsson called on all European regions to join this initiative to create a “European quality tourism network”
The AER press release points out that this initiative is the first of this kind since the consultation launched by the European Commission in October 2004 on new political orientations on tourism. (Site: http://www.aertourismnetwork.org ).