NECSTouR shared its vision about the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) Opinion “Towards more sustainable tourism for EU cities and regions” this 16th of July and called for a higher recognition of the role of the European Regions in the EU Policies and Budget.

The debate was chaired by Mr Manuel Alejandro Cardenete, Deputy Regional Minister for Tourism of Andalusia, NECSTouR Vice President and rapporteur of the opinion.

“I share my gratitude to NECSTouR and its Regions for the valuable contribution they are providing to the drafting of this opinion”, Mr Cardenete stated during his introduction.

Policy Objectives

The opinion has been redrafted to take into consideration the new scenario after the terrible impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in the European Tourism economy and the recent measures adopted by the European Commission on the so called Tourism and Transport package.  It includes the following preliminary Policy objectives:

- Ensuring that sustainable development is not just a label and taking action

- Setting up a follow-up and traceability system for action taken

- Working to ensure that tourism not seen as a problem

- Implementing a strategic framework for action on tourism more robust and committed to sustainable development

- Giving greater weight to tourism in European policies, commensurate with its current contribution and potential for growth

- Providing a budget line earmarked exclusively for sustainable tourism

NECSTouR Vision

NECSTouR was asked by Mr Cardenete to open the stakeholder’s debate and present its vision relating to these points.

“The pandemic has highlighted the paramount role of regional policy makers in contributing to a green and digital post-Covid tourism recovery”, Cristina Nunez, NECSTouR coordinator highlighted during her intervention and she continued: “We call the European policy-makers to transfer and capitalise all the existing good practices, strategies and methodologies – including the Horizontal MED project Sustainable Tourism Communities and PANORAMED  - and to ensure that tourism will be more visible in the new programming period 2021-2027 and, in particular, in ESIF investments”,

“When we talk about tourism – Mr Jan Korthoudt, NECSTouR Vice-President also commented - we are usually talking about recreational tourism, but we should certainly not lose sight of business tourism. Many initiatives are currently being taken to restore recreational tourism and business tourism – i.g. meetings, incentives, congresses, exhibitions - is often forgotten, despite this sector is an important driver of tourism development.”

Next Steps

During his conclusion, Mr Cardenete set up the plan for next steps: “After the Opinion will be adopted in December – he stated – we need the cooperation of each tourism stakeholder in order to make it circulate among the different European institutions and request their endorsement.”

Related Information

Opinion Factsheet
Presentation of Mr Cardenete (16-07-2020)