Towards Resilient Tourism: A Deep Dive into the EU's Transition Pathways
The European Union's tourism industry stands as a multifaceted ecosystem, intertwining leisure with rich cultural heritage. Recently, the sector has faced unparalleled challenges, grappling with the stringent impacts of geopolitical uncertainties triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. As EU Member States navigate through economic turbulence resulting from critical cross-border threats, the resilience and adaptability of the EU tourism sector are put to the test.
In this blog post, we will discuss the main takeaways from the conference dedicated to the “Transition Pathways for Tourism”, including the achievements and the challenges that lie ahead for the tourism sector and the European Commission. Most data and inferences presented at the conference and summarised in this blogpost, are derived from a report created by the Directorate General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW). It is available for online access here.
“Transition Pathways for Tourism”
Following geopolitical instability affecting the EU tourism industry, the European Commission and relevant stakeholders decided to co-create a “Transition Pathways for Tourism” strategy. With this, the aim is to support the green and digital transition of the tourism ecosystem and ultimately, increase the sector’s resilience. After two years of implementation, the Commission and several stakeholders of the industry came together on March 15th, 2024. This offered the opportunity to present their findings, celebrate their successes, and reflect on their challenges.
The event aimed to update stakeholders on recent EU tourism developments showcase stakeholder commitments (through pledges), and foster engagement.
EU Tourism Pillars & Process since 2022
Initially, the Transition Pathways for Tourism initiative was designed with five fundamental dimensions. Under the legislative “umbrella” of the EU Green Deal, these pillars encompass the relevant aspects of the EU tourism industry. More specifically, the objective of the “Transition Pathways for Tourism” is to achieve progress in the following five dimensions, detailed in the following section.
Policy and Governance
Green Transition
Digital Transition
Resilience and Inclusion
Skills and Stakeholder Support
Regarding Policy and Governance, stakeholder engagement has been proven very important during the past two years, with notable progress in developing tourism strategies and utilising data effectively, particularly by public administrations at the local, regional, and national levels.
The Green Transition witnessed significant attention, notably with 45 pledges dedicated to the sustainability efforts of tourism companies, although progress on the measurement of the industry’s environmental impact requires further attention. In that context, the European Commission is supervising the development of the Product Environmental Footprint for the hotel industry, which is a product-specific Life Cycle Assessment method used to measure the environmental performance of products. The Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules for the hotel industry are expected to be published in May 2026. The main objective is to support tourism accommodations by enabling them to measure their environmental impacts, adopting a life-cycle approach, while using a scientifically tested method.
To illustrate how the sector has made progress in acting on the green transition,140 million overnight trips were made by train in 2022. This shows the ambition of tourists to travel more sustainably. On the contrary, the Digital Transition showed comparatively slower progress, specifically regarding digitalisation efforts for SMEs and tourism destinations Moreover, challenges arose in tracking relevant research and innovation. Only 53% of EU accommodations and food enterprises now have merely basic digital intensity. This is an alarming figure confirming the assessment.
Furthermore, Resilience and Inclusion discussions highlighted the sector's response to crises like COVID-19. Here, the need for enhanced crisis management capacity and prioritising decent tourism jobs have been emphasised. Particularly in the context of the current situation in Ukraine, which impacts neighbouring countries, such as Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Moldova.
Moreover, while the Skills and Stakeholder Support dimension acknowledged the significance of skills, progress has fallen short of expectations. Notably, reskilling and upskilling initiatives are predominantly spearheaded by business associations and regional administrations, meaning that improvement can be achieved with the participation of the European Union, its Member States, and municipalities. The sluggish advancement in this area is evident in the findings of a survey conducted by the European Commission, revealing that only 56,000 individuals were trained in 2022. This figure represents less than half of the targeted 10% of the tourism workforce.
The Commission’s section was followed up by the pledges and achievements of the tourism industry stakeholders. Their most important milestone was the establishment of the Together 4 Tourism (T4T) informal Commission expert group. The group aims to inform the Commission about stakeholder needs, raise awareness on priority topics, pool expert knowledge for Commission advice, and track transition progress. Additionally, a significant number of 424 pledges have been published by October 2023, with SMEs (16%), Business associations (13%), and Destination Management Organisations (DMOs) (13%) being frequent contributors.
What does the future hold for European tourism?
Even though all parties agreed that progress has been achieved since the start of the implementation of the strategy, ongoing work is needed to expand beyond initial goals, especially considering cross-border crises like climate change, energy efficiency and over-tourism. Looking ahead, the EU Transition Pathways for Tourism will focus on the following elements:
Close monitoring and streamlining stakeholder engagement.
Enhancing local awareness regarding existing and future initiatives to support the tourism industry.
Getting further support from Member States in the form of pledges.
Prioritising skills development through National and Regional Skills Partnerships (NRSP) so that working staff are better equipped for the demands of the industry.
Revising the Regulation (EU) 692/2011 on Tourism Statistics,
Establishing a Common European data space with EU-level support for infrastructure and data sharing.
In conclusion, progress across all Transition Pathway areas is evident, though Digitalisation and Skills and Stakeholder support are identified as crucial areas in need of further attention. The imperative for comprehensive data and indicators to guide decision-making and track progress at all levels is emphasised, with collaborative efforts being essential for optimisation. Examples of concrete action are needed, as well as further utilisation of the stakeholder’s diverse backgrounds and expertise. Moving forward, the T4T expert subgroups are positioned to assume central roles, facilitating knowledge circulation and offering targeted assistance.
AUTHOR
Vasilis Triantafyllidis
Born and raised in Athens, Vasilis holds degrees in Slavic Studies and Political Science. Prior to joining 2B Policy as Public Affairs Analyst, he worked as a Public Affairs Intern at Randstad Global. He is supporting 2B Policy in analysing and monitoring relevant EU legislative files.