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EU: EU Parliament calls for an EU Strategy for Sustainable Tourism

Added 2021-02-26

Description

Update: On 26 March 2021 European Parliament approved (on March 25, 2021) a resolution on Establishing an EU Strategy for Sustainable Tourism.

In particular it calls on the European Commission:

- to swiftly develop a roadmap for sustainable tourism that includes innovative measures to reduce the climate and environmental footprint of the sector by developing more sustainable forms of tourism, diversifying the offer, boosting new initiatives for cooperation and developing new digital services;

- to devise sustainable tourism action plans at national and regional level in consultation with stakeholders and civil society and in line with a future European roadmap for sustainable tourism, and to make full use of the Next Generation EU funds to finance the tourism transition action plans;

- to bring the European Tourism Indicators System (ETIS) into operation, to equip it with a permanent governance structure and to introduce it in tourism destinations, with static indicators and real-time data for their management and evaluation, in partnership with regions; stresses that the aim of the ETIS scoreboard is to monitor the economic, social and environmental impact of tourism;

- to examine the barriers to obtaining the Ecolabel and to expand its scope to other tourism services, as a complement to the EU Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) for tourism, and to establish mechanisms to support those certification schemes and to promote tourism operators that have obtained those schemes;

Source: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-9-2021-0109_EN.html 

A draft resolution on establishing an EU strategy for sustainable tourism, adopted by Transport and Tourism Committee on 25 Feb 2021 urges EU countries to include the tourism and travel sectors in their recovery plans and consider temporarily reducing VAT on these services.

The resolution recognises that the pandemic shifted traveller’s demand toward ‘safe and clean’ and more sustainable tourism. It calls for a common vaccination certificate, which could become an alternative to PCR tests and quarantine requirements. The text finally calls on the Commission to set up a European Agency for Tourism.

The resolution on establishing an EU strategy for sustainable tourism now needs to be voted by the full house of the Parliament, possibly during the March II session.

The COVID-19 outbreak has paralysed the EU tourism sector, which employs 27 million people, contributing around 10% of EU GDP, with 6 million jobs currently at risk.

Location

European Union
Brussels, Belgium

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