8th Baltic Sea Forum, Gdansk, 22.09.2015 Tourism policy priorities from a PPP perspective Georgios Drakopoulos Special Adviser to the Secretary General, UNWTO

1. 8th Baltic Sea Forum, Gdansk, 22.09.2015
Tourism policy priorities from a PPP perspective
Georgios Drakopoulos
Special Adviser to the Secretary General, UNWTO

2. To discuss some practical aspects on tourism development
with reference to the Commission’s strategy
on coastal and maritime tourism
VisionChallengesFrameworkActions
Purpose & outline of the presentation

3. European Commission, COM 352 (30.06.2010)
Europe, the world’s No 1 tourist destination
Europe, the world’s best place to live,
therefore to visit, too
o Growth and Tourism: The Vision

4. o Growth and Tourism: The framework
High Quality is OK as a strategic direction, however…
Value for Money is better!
(DG Enterprise and Industry, 20.02.2014)

5. Growth and Tourism: The framework
Half of European tourism’s jobs and value added are
located in the coastal areas
Southern Europe has far more tourist activity, now!
What about after 20-30 yrs and the climate change?

6. Blue Growth and Tourism: 4 challenges / pillars
— Stimulate performance and competitiveness
— Promoting skills and innovation
— Strengthening sustainability
— Maximize available EU funding

7. o Stimulate performance and competitiveness
Actions
— Travel Facilitation

8. Stimulate performance and competitiveness
Actions
LU PT GR MT CY ES IT FR DK
3 6 6,5 7 9 10 10 13 25
Introduce lower VAT rates for tourism across EU
Shall we move from national rates to product rates?

9. Stimulate performance and competitiveness
Actions
Provisions for skeleton staff in EU Heritage sites

10. Stimulate performance and competitiveness
Actions
Seasonality, beyond marketing action
New products
Diversification
Market segmentation
Pricing policies
Lower rates
Lower taxes
More subsidies

11. Stimulate performance and competitiveness
Actions
Seasonality, beyond marketing action
New products
Diversification
Market segmentation
Pricing policies
Lower rates
Lower taxes
More subsidies
Results?

12. Stimulate performance and competitiveness
Actions
Seasonality, beyond marketing action
Need for institutional regulation:
Annual leaves to be distributed throughout the year

13. Stimulate performance and competitiveness
Actions
o Brand transnational products not areas

14. Stimulate performance and competitiveness
Actions
o Brand transnational products not areas
o .eu
Cost free approach, fits perfectly with new generation
o www.visitgreece.gr
o www.visitpoland.pl
o www.visitmalta.mt

15. Stimulate performance and competitiveness
Actions
o Brand transnational products not areas
o .eu
Cost free approach, fits perfectly with new generation
o www.visitgreece.gr.eu
o www.visitpoland.pl.eu
o www.visitmalta.mt.eu

16. o Promoting skills and innovation
Actions
Improve professional status – social recognition

17. Promoting skills and innovation
Actions
— When it comes to training:
Owners – Managers FIRST

18. Promoting skills and innovation
Actions
— Innovation needs support from research
— Research needs support by educational systems
— The tourism education systems in some EU Member
States need to improve a lot, from basic up to academic
levels

19. o Strengthening sustainability
Actions
— Triple bottom line
Financial
SocialEnvironmental

20. o Maximize available EU funding
Actions
EU funds
Businesses

21. o Maximize available EU funding
Actions
EU funds
Intermediaries
Businesses

22. Maximize available EU funding
Actions
EU funds
Intermediaries
Businesses

23. o Initiatives & Programs!!! Awareness???
Senior. Accessibility. Destinations of Excellence. Blue Jobs.
EURES portal. Qualifications Framework. Credit System for
Vocational Education and Training. Erasmus+. Knowledge
Alliances. ICT. Tourism Business Portal. Natura. Water
Framework. Water Blueprint. Marine Strategy Framework
Directives. ECO Label. Travelife. EMAS. Tourism Indicator
System. Protocol BCN on Integrated Coastal Management.
Odyssea. Nautical Tourism. Tourism Quality Principles.
European Structural Investment Funds. European Regional
Development Fund. Horizon. COSME. Creative Europe.
LIFE+. Neighborhood Policy. Black Sea Synergy. Strategy
for Danube Region. Northern Dimension Policy.

24. A final message for policy action
Tourism is a good tool to help EU Member Countries
restructuring/boosting their economies