Europe Tourism Attractions:::

Europe is the world’s region most visited by tourists: in fact, six EU countries are in the world’s top ten destinations for holiday-makers. Not surprisingly the sector is very important to the European economy. Tourism is a cross-cutting sector, involving a big diversity of services and professions, linked to many other economic activities and policy areas.

Tourism is a dynamic and growing industry – turnover grew by about a quarter between 1999 and 2002. In 2004, foreign tourists spent more than 860 million nights in European accommodation.

Mainly dominated by SMEs, it accounts for 4% of the Community’s GDP, with about 2 million enterprises employing about 4% of the total labour force (representing approximately 8 million jobs). When the links to other sectors are taken into account, the contribution of tourism to GDP is estimated to be around 11% and it provides employment to more than 12% of the labour force (24 million jobs).

Besides growth and jobs creation, tourism plays an important role in the development of the vast majority of European regions. Infrastructure created for tourism purposes contributes to local development, and jobs are created or maintained even in areas in industrial or rural decline, or undergoing urban regeneration.

Sustainable tourism plays a major role in the preservation and enhancement of the cultural and natural heritage in an ever expanding number of areas,

ranging from arts to local gastronomy, crafts or the preservation of biodiversity.

This led the Commission and the tourism stakeholders to work for the elaboration o

f a European Agenda 21 for Tourism

A new policy approach is being developed, linking tourism to the demands of the Lisbon strategy, which seeks to stimulate European competitiveness and growth.

The Tourism policy in brief

The renewed tourism policy, proposed by the Commission in 2006, aims to help the industry meet a number of challenges while promoting overall competitiveness. Those challenges include facing up to Europe’s ageing population; growing external competition, consumer demands for more specialised tourism, and the need to develop more sustainable and environmentally friendly practices. The revised policy seeks to produce more and better jobs by nurturing conditions that will help tourism grow strongly in the coming years.

DG Enterprise and Industry action

The Commission’s Tourism Unit aims to further develop dialogue and partnership with industry stakeholders for the benefit of the sector, and promote a wider understanding of the role tourism plays in European life.