Written by Maria Juul
On 27 September we celebrate World Tourism Day. Tourism is the third largest socio-economic activity in the European Union. Tourism industries directly contribute over 5% of EU GDP, and when taking into account other industries that produce tourism products, tourism’s economic contribution is even higher: over 10% of EU GDP. On World Tourism Day, the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) highlights two aspects of tourism and related EU policies.
Our first analysis, ‘Tourism and the European Union‘ looks at the importance of tourism to the European Union economy and introduces some trends affecting tourism in the EU. It also provides an overview of EU tourism policy and describes how some other EU policies are related to tourism. Lastly, it looks at recent developments in the sector.
The second analysis, ‘The sharing economy and tourism‘ focuses on how the sharing economy impacts tourism, and in particular tourist accommodation. We discuss the example of US-based online platform Airbnb, where individuals share (not only) accommodation with tourists. We also look at how some activities in the sharing economy have been regulated at the local level and how the European institutions have reacted to the growing popularity of platforms in the sharing economy.
EPRS has also analysed ‘The Cost of Non-Europe in the Single Market for transport and tourism’ (annex III on ‘Tourism policy and passenger rights’) and published a ‘Codification of Passenger Rights: Cost of Non-Europe Report’. These studies look at gaps in European tourism policy and passenger rights legislation and identify areas where legislation or further initiatives at the EU level could be beneficial.
Do you want to know what is going on in specific sectors of tourism? EPRS monitors what think tanks and research institutes say, to share the most interesting papers on the EPRS Policy Area Page on Tourism. Here are some of the many resources we recommend:
‘European cruise market is booming’ / Tourism Review, 2015
‘European City tourism to resume positive growth in 2014, bolstered by international bednights and the recovery of traditional markets’ / European Cities Marketing, 2015
‘Global Report on Adventure Tourism’ / UNWTO, Adventure Travel Trade Association, 2014
