The paper has been prepared by the NECSTouR Executive Team working with our Board Champions and following a debate by our members with the Tourism Unit of DG MOVE of the European Commission during our Annual General Meeting in Milan in May. We have also discussed the consultation with the Brussels Delegations of NECSTouR member regions and worked through our Tourism Advocacy Group involving Committee of the Regions members during the first half of this year.

Specifically, we call for the European Commission to:

• establish a dedicated EU budget line for tourism post-2027
• ensure that tourism is fully included in the European Commission’s new political priorities
• provide greater support for regional and local authorities in the implementation of their climate action plans for tourism
• place data & digitalisation at the heart of the strategy by supporting the work of D3HUB into a European Tourism Data Competence Centre
• support local and regional authorities to ensure residents are properly engaged in tourism planning
• integrate sustainable tourism mobility into EU transport policy
• support and rely on regional cooperation platforms
• further develop innovative education and training programmes tailored to tourism’s green and digital transition

The paper examines the needs of the tourism sector at a critical conjuncture and how they relate to the local and regional level. These needs include better balanced tourism, acknowledging that more marketing means more tourism and providing more support to addressing the impact of this on citizens, residents, the environment, and bringing about better intra-regional flow management to enable less well-known tourism centres to benefit.

We set out our expectations for the future European Tourism Strategy due out next year and underline NECSTouR’s credentials in helping deliver this strategy into the next Multiannual Financial Perspective post 2027 by highlighting our long track record in supporting sustainable tourism for regional tourism actors and Destination Management Organisations since 2007. We strongly believe a networks-led approach will better achieve long term goals for the sector.

We look forward to engaging in a debate with tourism stakeholders during the remainder of this year to help further sharpen the focus of the new European Tourism Strategy and provide further insight from the regional level through our diverse and committed regional members.