The European Commission has presented a new Sustainable Tourism Strategy to help destinations manage visitor flows, spread travel more evenly through the year and prepare for potential crises. The package includes plans for an EU tourism-management model, a Council recommendation and a toolkit for balanced tourism, alongside a crisis-coordination network. It is a strategy of proposed measures, not a binding system of visitor caps or controls.
The Commission intends the toolkit to help destinations match visitor demand with their capacity, including by promoting travel outside peak periods and encouraging visitors to consider less-visited places. Measures are to be adaptable to local and cross-border circumstances. The Commission’s approach leaves implementation to destinations and member states.
The strategy also identifies skills, data and digitalisation as priorities. Planned initiatives include an EU Tourism Academy, a Tourism Observatory and a Common European Tourism Data Space, as well as a simplification initiative. These are intended to support tourism businesses and destination-management organisations with training, analysis and access to data.
The Commission cites workforce and skills shortages, climate impacts, geopolitical uncertainty and changing traveller expectations among the challenges facing the sector. Tourism accounts for 10% of EU gross value added, supports more than 20 million jobs and comprises five million businesses, 99% of them SMEs. Europe receives about 40% of international tourist arrivals worldwide.