Tourism in the european union

Tourism in the European Union

Paulo Rita

Assistant Professor, ISCTE School of Management, Lisbon

The importance of tourism

Tourism is the largest generator of wealth

and employment in the world. Tourism is the

economic engine for developed and

developing economies worldwide. The

tourism industry constitutes 11 per cent of

global GDP, supports 200 million jobs

worldwide, 8 per cent of total employment. In

the last three years, some 8.5 million jobs

have been created as a result of growth in

tourism. By 2010, the tourism economy

contribution is estimated to grow to 12 per

cent of global GDP, and will support 250

million jobs, 9 per cent of total employment

(World Travel and Tourism Council).

Europe is the main tourist destination

region in the world, accounting for 59 per

cent of international tourist arrivals and 52

per cent of tourism revenues, but this region

has been losing market share. Europe is also

the main generating market in the world, and

it is expected to increase its predominance

with a reinforcement of the long distance

outbound travel. It is forecast that Europe

will register 717 million incoming

international tourists in 2020, against the

current 386 million, showing an average

annual growth rate of 3 per cent, that is below

the world total, i.e. 4 per cent per year (World

Tourism Organisation). Thus, Europe is

expected to see its market share fall further

to 46 per cent. Moreover, the intra-European

movement will register a significant

reduction of its participation in the total

destinations chosen by Europeans from the

current 87 per cent to 78 per cent for 2020.

Tourism is an essential economic activity

in the EU in terms of GDP, of employment,

and of external trade in services. Tourism

currently holds 5.5 per cent of the EU GDP,

6 per cent of employment, and 30 per cent of

services exports. The EU will keep obtaining

annual growth rates on tourism above the

average rates of the economy. Furthermore,

it is admitted that tourism in the next decade

may generate up to 3.3 million jobs in the

European Union. The European Union

countries absorb 68 per cent of the tourism

movements (75 per cent of tourism revenues)

in Europe and 41 per cent of the total world

flows (39 per cent of the world global

amount).

At the 2nd World Travel and Tourism

Summit, organised by the World Travel and

Tourism Council, which gathered together in

Portugal more than 200 of the world's

decision makers in governments and global

businesses, the participants made the

following commitment in the Vilamoura

Declaration 2000:

1 To continue to measure and promote the

importance of tourism as a force for

economic growth, job creation, and peace

to measure political and economic policy

makers.

2 To foster cooperation between private

enterprises, the public sector and

communities at local, national and

regional levels.

3 To encourage the expansion of

infrastructure and human resource

training and development, and the

reduction of the great debt in some

emerging economies, to match growth in

demand for tourism in both emerging and

developed economies.

4 To develop tourism that is economically,

socially and environmentally sustainable

and enriching.

5 To promote tourism's unique role in

harnessing technological advancement to

fulfil human aspirations.

The EU tourism policy

Despite clear evidence of tourism importance

in economic and social terms and its

undeniable perspectives of growth along the

next two decades, tourism has registered

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[ 434 ]

International Journal of

Contemporary Hospitality

Management

12/7 [2000] 434±436

# MCB University Press

[ISSN 0959-6119]

Keywords

Tourism, European Union

Abstract

Discusses the importance of

tourism as the largest generator of

wealth and employment in the

world and the fact that, despite

the clear evidence of tourism

importance in economic and social

terms and its undeniable

perspectives of growth along the

next two decades, it has

registered great difficulties in

obtaining its legal political

recognition within the European

Union. In conclusion, it is

suggested that there ought to be a

political recognition of the

European tourism as one of the

activities of the future, with an

enormous capacity to provide new

opportunities to satisfy important

political objectives, such as the

economic growth and wellbeing of

populations, employment, regional

development, and patrimonial

value.