The European Union
The European Union (27
Member States, 500 million inhabitants (2012) is an interesting case: not in its
first phase when a High Authority (the ECSC) was created in 1951, nor in its
subsequent phase which resulted in the Rome Treaties (1957-8) was there any
mention of direct competence in relation to tourism. From the very beginning,
as Luuk van Middelaar rather snidely writes, “France looks to Europe for a
reincarnation of itself. Germany seeks (or has sought) redemption from guilt. For
Britain it was ‘a seat at the table’ whenever the others meet.”
A brief history of Europe
and holidays
A European Federation is an idea being discussed more and
more every day, as pressure from the economic crisis has necessitated that a
strong authoritative banking union capable of strengthening the monetary union
be created. At its origins, it was
characterised by taking account of urgent political issues, leading to, through
practice, lasting peace. Of course, it was also about creating a coordinated
strategy for certain industrial productions essential to ensuring the autonomy
of this new federal club in the world’s eyes.
On 9 May 1950, Robert Schuman released to the public a text,
which he altered at the last minute to expand the focus beyond simple
cross-border collaboration and shrewdly began with the marriage of a couple in
the process of reconciliation, as well as cleverly highlighting two key
industries. Only then does he come onto the fundamental values: the French
government “proposes that Franco-German production of coal and steel as a whole
be placed under a common High Authority, within the framework of an organization
open to the participation of the other countries of Europe (…) This proposal
will lead to the realization of the first concrete foundation of a European
federation indispensable to the preservation of peace.”
Tourism was partly an elite undertaking which for centuries
had no need for political or social intervention to get people moving, and
partly about paid leave - when it was instated, which did not happen evenly across
the board. In France, workers gained the right to paid leave on 7 June 1936
(for Belgium it was 8 July of the same year), yet in other European countries –
Germany, Norway and Poland – paid leave came in between 1900 and 1930. You can
well imagine, then, that the stark contrasts between different post-war
political regimes, above all the division between democracies on one side and
the communist and fascist regimes on the other, made it impossible to draw any
real comparisons. At the end of 2011, however, comparison is much easier. The
French get 36 working days’ leave, including public holidays, the same as the
United Kingdom and Sweden. This is slightly higher in Austria, Malta or Greece,
much lower in Germany, Ireland and Romania (29), and the lowest entitlement was
in Wales (28). The necessary number of trimesters worked in order to receive a
full pension is constantly being discussed with a view to raising it in all
European countries. However, paid leave does not right now seem to need
lowering as the economy activity generated by people using their free time for
tourism is essential to economies worldwide. How these holidays are used
throughout the year has steadily evolved from taking one summer holiday to two
holidays, upon the ‘creation’ of winter or skiing holidays, and then to
multiple holidays, as long weekends and short breaks have taken over from the
traditional summer and winter holidays.
On Rome’s Capitoline Hill, 25 March 1957, treaties on an
atomic energy community and an economic community were signed. This took place
against a geopolitical backdrop of the Suez Crisis and the disquiet arising
from oppression in Budapest; in other words, years of a world divided between
two blocs in a fear-induced stalemate, commanding over their regions of
influence. Some European countries, constrained somewhat by circumstance, came
to bolster Europe’s core, to equip it with more economic and political resistance,
and make of it a Community. Nuclear power made its entrance, without the issues
to do with military applications being resolved; France put forward the idea of
a common agricultural policy, which remains at the fore today. At first glance, you might say that the
definition of the free movement of people (and its protective legal limitations)
as well as the negotiation over extending France’s 40-hour working week to
Germany were the only measures to impact directly on free time policy, and thus
the nature of tourism in Europe.
In comparison to fundamental rights and derived rights, and a
growing Cold War which could at any moment turn hot, talking about leisure and
holidays might seem rather trivial.
However, this is not at all the case, as in came a new phase of the timeshare
and market responses built on it. Club Med, to give one example, was
established in 1950. Gilbert Trigiano joined in 1954, and in 1956, the company
opened its first winter village in Leysin, Switzerland.
Twenty years ago, give or take a few months, a ceremony in
Maastricht ushered in a new chapter in the history of European cooperation. On
7 February 1992, Finance Ministers and Foreign Affairs Ministers from the 12
States that were then members of the then European Community signed the treaty
on the European Union and committed to the eventual creation of a single
European currency. A number of fields would finally fall under the scope of a
common economic policy which touches on the areas of the economy which interest
us: the environment, research and development, education and training of
quality, culture and consumer protection; steps were taken with regard to
energy, civil protection and tourism.
I have already been able to take a detailed look on the realities
and scope of the European Union’s competences with regard to tourism and how they
have developed between 1992 and 2009. After the major geopolitical development
which opened up the borders (the Schengen Convention of 1990), not to mention
the accession of new countries, the adoption of a number of directives on the
movement of citizens and economic exchanges in an expanding single market, only
one article in the Lisbon Treaty considers a tourism policy by the European
Union, in all its current glory. According the Article 195, the European Union
shall “promote the competitiveness of undertakings in this sector and create an
environment conducive to their development; encourage cooperation between the
Member States, particularly through the exchange of good practice develop an
integrated approach to tourism, ensuring that the sector is taken into account
in its other policies.”
A package of measures
Unlike the first part of this article, I do not see the point in reviewing the recent measures which I have already presented in the post mentioned above. The Commission Communication entitled ‘Europe, the world’s No1 tourist destination – a new political framework for tourism in Europe’ has radically changed, but in suggestive and encouraging ways, the very idea of tourism, which must receive aid and promotion for Destination Europe to grow.
“The
European Union can contribute to the diversification of supply by encouraging
intra-European flows through capitalising on the development of thematic
tourism products on a European scale. Transnational synergies can ensure better
promotion and a higher profile for tourism. This may include the full range of
heritage: cultural heritage (including cultural itineraries), contemporary
culture, protected natural sites, health and wellbeing (including spa tourism),
educational, wine and food, historical, sport or religious tourism,
agri-tourism, rural tourism, or tourism capitalising on the maritime and
sub-aquatic cultural heritage, industrial heritage or the economic fabric of a
region.”
Note 2024: See new communication : EC-communication-on-the-Blue-Economy-May-2021.pdf (europa.eu)
This time, therefore, I wanted more to comment on the accumulation
of measures proposed over the last two year and of decisions and new frameworks
for old decisions. This is still a rather eclectic collection as it
incorporates the history of different forms of tourism and the evolution of
actors in the field; today it represents the priority policy for the European
Commission with regard to ‘Tourism and Europe’. I will not, however, be
commenting again on the programmes I have already discussed, such as EDEN or
recent Commission trends (‘Tourism to become economic driver in 2012’).
Even though tourism has become a widespread activity which,
thanks to various incentives and social developments, involves all ages and all
social classes, the European Commission was duty-bound, as in every area in
which it operates, to favour all Europeans and eradicate inequality. Although
tourist numbers worldwide are continually increasing in the developed world,
over recent years the gap has widened gravely between those who travel and
those who do not have means. This is not only occurring around the world but
within Europe itself, and it seems very much like this is only going to get
worse. Reaching young people means making tourism accessible to Europeans with
limited budgets – even non-existent budgets if the constantly rising youth
unemployment statistics are to be believed. What is more, at the other end of
the age range, average life expectancy is on the rise just as consistently and
so tourism travel is continuing among healthy senior citizens and pensioners. As
such, tourist behaviours which were formerly marginal at best, such as long
walks, are abounding. Paradoxically, younger people are also partaking in such
activities, thus creating an inter-generational and particularly exciting form
of the social economy. On the other hand, the stage of life where ageing people
generally struggle to get around is also getting longer, as is the number of
people with lifelong disabilities, for whom accessibility is an absolute
necessity.
This was therefore a whole sector of the tourist market which
was in urgent need of studies and action. Meeting this need was an ethical
duty, but also involved better sharing of strengths, spending, and tourist
seasons.
Social Tourism
In 2009, therefore before the Communication was even adopted, preparatory action was launched, code-named CALYPSO. It was allocated a €1mn budget in 2009 and 2010, in much the same way as has happened for the cultural routes and cross-border cultural tourism. This was raised to €11.5mn in 2011, the year which brought an end to the preparatory phase. The aim behind social tourism is to enable the largest possible number of people go on holiday and, hence, significantly increase Europeans’ mobility, no matter their age or social background.
“This form of tourism can also help counter seasonal
imbalances and foster regional development, as well as aiding certain areas of
local economies… It enables low-season tourism to develop, in particular in
regions where tourism is well developed yet subjected to sizeable seasonal
imbalances. It also helps smaller, lesser-known or emerging destinations
promote their products to more European citizens,” the Commission adds.
The Study ‘Tourism exchanges in Europe: enhancing employment,
extending the seasonality spread, strengthening European citizenship and
improving regional/local economies through the development of Social Tourism’
was carried out from 2009-2010. Meetings to create awareness and facilitate
information exchange were prepared with the aim of identifying mechanisms to promote
attractively-priced tourism exchanges between countries at low season. These
meetings took place in different countries around Europe (Poland, Romania,
Italy, France, Spain and Belgium).
As well as communicational material, calls for proposals were
made with a view to aiding the public authorities responsible for tourism in getting
CALYPSO’s target groups to participate in transnational exchanges during low
season in the near future. Specifically, they sought:
- to assist public authorities in implement, developing
and/or enhancing the CALYPSO infrastructure in their country;
- to establish networking between public authorities and
increase collaboration with a view to promoting exchanges during low season for
one or more of CALYPSO’s four target groups;
- to carry out studies capable of improving the situation in
participating countries and thus facilitating exchanges during low season.
The platform STEEP (Social Tourism European Exchanges Platform) is being prepared to accommodate all exchanges.
Sustainable Tourism
In line with its previous communications on tourism policy, the European Commission adopted the ‘Agenda for a sustainable and competitive European tourism’ in October 2007. This is in large part based on the conclusions of the tourism sustainability study group, comprising experts from tourism destinations, the tourist industry and civil society, but also the results of a public consultation which took place between April and June 2007. In the Agenda, the European Commission set out a framework for implementing supportive policies and actions in the field of tourism and all other fields which have an impact on tourism and its sustainability.
The Commission planned
a progressive approach for this. It is all down to the work of the Tourism
Sustainability Group, a group of experts brought together at the end of 2004:
composed of 24 members from different countries and different outlooks, a group
expanded to official organisations as well as the WTO and the United Nations
Environment Programme, so that different priorities were explored. These
concerned the fields of transport and accommodation, expanding tourism mobility
in off-peak seasons, the water and energy economies, recycling, reducing noise
pollution, respecting cultural identity and identity with nature in the host
locations, enhancing local economies, including small-scale artisanal
industries, and protecting natural and cultural heritage.
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The Don Quixote Route,
Castilla La Mancha, Spain
Calls for tenders followed these discussions, still within
the preparatory phases (2009-2011), and a number of projects and structures
arose: the NECSTour Network in 2007, a network of European regions for
sustainable and competitive tourism; the work of bodies such as the Cité Européenne de la Culture et du Tourisme
Durable in Gréoux-les-Bains, France, on tools for measuring the
sustainability of tourism projects, and the work of the Odyssea project on
implementing a sustainability policy for maritime tourism in the port towns of
the Mediterranean. This was how the
European Commission provided strong support for cycling tourism, in particular
the initiative on the Iron Curtain Trail. The European Travel Commission
website provides a list of structures connected to this issue of
sustainability.
Since 2011, the initiatives have intertwined more and more with those for cultural routes and cross-border tourism, and as such with the new designated cultural tourism framework, which I shall discuss below. In addition to the cooperation with the Council of Europe on the study we have already mentioned many times, a number of projects have been selected following a call for projects in the summer of 2011 (a call for proposals aiming at promoting transnational thematic tourism products and enhancing sustainable tourism development). These are the Per Viam project ( about The Via Francigena and the other trans-national pilgrimage routes certified by the Council of Europe as tools of sustainable cultural tourism development and community participation to the enhancement of Europe’s cultural and heritage diversity), the Danubecycling route (about connecting partners from Austria, Germany, Slovakia, Serbia and Bulgaria in order to create a substantial basis for the development and recognition of hiking tourism within the Danube area), the Greenways4Tour (Promoting and increasing international awareness of European greenways as excellent facilities for cyclists, walkers and people with disabilities and improving sustainable tourism choices in Europe), the LimesTourism Connection (about developing the frontiers of the Roman Empire as a transnational initiative) et Eurovelo.
As you can see, cycling and walking routes are right at the
forefront of all this. We are very much looking forward to the results of these
five projects, which should be presented in spring 2013, for the rise in this
softer, slower tourism alternative is a strong trend for which we have no
impact data. Happily, one route labelled by the Council of Europe is among the
selected projects, all the happier because it relates to the very beginnings of
this programme, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary: the
pilgrimage routes. As a result, it should represent all the routes recognised by
the Council and based on the idea of gentle roaming. The actions set out in the
project summary certainly follow an approach geared towards sustainability, but
above all an approach of visibility and large-scale networking with comparable
systems in several other areas and regions. They will no doubt provide
complementary information to the first cultural routes impact analysis (which
could do with a specific critical view), as currently, operators have at their
disposal a series of advice, criticisms and a list of procedures to follow, but
no clear idea of their real impact, except that they could be more important, not
that we really know how or in what areas. It must be said that the examples
chosen in this study are so diverse that it would be difficult to extract any
general conclusions. Multifunctional modelling of the different categories of
the cultural and heritage properties with the Cultural Route of the Council of
Europe label is yet to be produced, which makes the Per Viam project all the
more useful given its tightening of the chosen classifications.
The
Saint Michel route, Mont-Saint-Michel, France
Cultural Tourism
I have already mentioned just how much cultural tourism has featured in European Commission thinking from 1995-1996. The Mallorca Declaration, which came out of shared work between UNESCO, the European Commission and the Council of Europe, opened up a huge field of culture, which unfortunately the Commission slammed shut all too quickly in 1997 due to key countries’ opposition to a common tourism policy:
“Since the Age of Enlightenment, Europe has found a means of expression
and, at the same time, a limitless resource: travel. Indeed, in every peaceful
period in its history, Europe has developed cultural exchanges linked to
movement: stories written by travel-writers, trips taken by artists seeking
inspiration beneath other skies, trends of visiting faraway cultural tours like
the famous “European tours” taken by the children of the English aristocracy,
from which derives the name tourism. Supported by these practices, an entire
system of initially gracious welcome, then of merchant hospitality, came into
being. Europe invented and perfected tourist services for the benefit of a
tourism initially devoted to culture and the discovery of the other.”
Don Quixote route, Castilla
La Mancha, Spain
Development near Toledo
Commissioner Tajani is now coming back to routes laid out a
number of years ago and we must acknowledge that the Commission website has a
full page dedicated to ‘Cultural Tourism’. The introduction is less poetic than
that of 1996, but it offers a statistic which we could question, unless you
consider cultural tourism to be merely visiting at least one heritage site on a
trip to Europe: ‘Europe is the
first-choice destination for cultural tourism. It contains a vast number of significant
places and welcomes a huge number of visitors from Europe and beyond. It is
estimated that cultural tourism accounts for 40% of all European tourism.
More and more, tourists are on the lookout for authenticity and true
experiences with different cultures and people. Tourism policies will have to
adapt to these new trends and develop a high-quality product which promotes
local cultures and traditions and is mindful of preserving local heritage,
landscapes and culture. The products of transnational cultural tourism embody
our values and our shared European heritage. They help give Europe its image as
a ‘unique’ tourist destination. This is why the European Commission is
implementing a number of actions with a view to promoting transnational tourism
products which are showing strong growth potential.’
It goes without saying, even if it took the European Commission 15 years and backing from its member states to get there, that the European cultural routes are the product which demonstrate most acutely the need for consistency within Destination Europe.
‘The European cultural routes pass through different regions and
countries and are a good starting point for enhancing the variety and richness
of cultural tourism in Europe. These routes possess significant potential for
tourism, which is as of yet still largely unexplored. They transcend nations
and represent our shared values and heritage. They are also perceived as a
sustainable, ethical and social model for they are based on our local
knowledge, skills and heritage and often enhance the visibility of less-visited
European destinations. What is more, 90% of cultural routes pass through rural
areas. The European Commission actively cooperates with the Council of Europe,
the European Travel Commission, the UN World Tourism Organisation, and other
international partners to contribute to the development of tourist routes
throughout Europe. Right now, there are 29 transnational routes (24 of these
since the last meeting of the Council of Europe’s relevant committee) which
connect towns, villages and rural communities across the continent. Through
these routes, Europe can be seen as one sole tourist destination.’
This is not the place to discuss tourist visiting statistics
or the number of cultural routes and their evolution, nor the work of the
partners mentioned above. For the World Tourism Organisation and UNESCO,
reference can be made to certain previous posts describing the work undertaken
in this sector; for the Council of Europe, wait for the next post. It would
surely be more meaningful to present the projects selected through a second
call for tenders, launched in 2011, on transnational cultural tourism projects
since they are indicative of good practices and areas which the Commission
values as solutions going forward.
Via Francigena. Fidenza
Cathedral, Italy
The CERTO project (Cultural European Routes: TOols for a
coordinated communication & marketing strategy) applies to the Via
Francigena and the Saint James and Saint Olav Ways. The project aims to help
alleviate one of the problems and weaknesses perceived at EU level and
expressed in the Call: the lack of a common and coordinated European
communication and marketing strategy for cultural tourism initiatives, meaning
the lack of a true European "cultural tourism product". The intention
is to develop an integrated promotion and visibility strategy shared by the
three transnational routes recognized by the Council of Europe. I can only
reiterate how much I am looking forward to the results of this project given
the coherence between the pilgrimage routes that I have already highlighted.
Saint Olav Pilgrimage,
Trondheim, Norway
The TECH-TOUR (Technology and Tourism: augmented reality for
the promotion of the Roman and Byzantine routes) mainly involves the Adriatic. ‘Cultural
Routes in the Middle and Lower Danube Region’ deals with the Route of the
Emperors and the Wine Route in the regions around the Danube. It primarily
brings together national ministers, the Croatian Chamber of Commerce and two
private partners: HorwathHTL in Croatia and Mioritics in Romania. I found WE.COME
(Hidden WondErs of our COMmon European heritages) rather difficult to
understand from its presentation. We must await the creation of its website for
further information.
The ODYSSEA CULTURE EURO-MED is described as follows: “The partners of the project ODYSSEA
CULTURES EURO-MED commit themselves to developing strategic co-operation projects
to organize and promote the values and the ethics of the Council of Europe and
UNESCO, the Maritime Cultural Route of the Ports & Tourist Mediterranean
Territories as “Stopovers Inheritances Headlights of the Mediterranean”. A
strategic project which confers a real international visibility on a whole
local and regional economy of maritime and coastal tourism in the coordinated
organization of a cluster: Heritage Tourism, Coastal Tourism and Yachting,
Culture, Agritourism, R&D, training and environment.”
Crossroads of Europe
Among the measures which the European Commission has directly
implemented, the idea of a salon doubling as a seminar (or the other way round)
hosted in a town where cultural routes cross was highlighted as an important
step forward for visibility and to enhance the way in which the cultural routes
complement one another. The Commission presents the initiative as follows:
“Crossroads of Europe aims to promote the European cultural routes and raise
awareness of their tourism potential for stakeholders, businesses, tour
operators and local and national authorities. The first event took place in
Pavia, Italy, from 6 to 10 June 2012. As Pavia is located at the crossroad of
five cultural routes that were once pilgrimage routes, the event will be dedicated
to the theme of pilgrimages, which historically have united people from all
over Europe by their shared values.” A map on Google gives a very general
outline of the chosen routes and emphasises certain parts. The routes in
question are the Via Francigena, the ViaAugustina, the Route of Saint Martin de Tours, the Casa-Dei European Network
and the Cluniac Sites in Europe.
Via Sancti Martini,
Crossroads of Europe
The programme comprised in part a fair, with stands arranged
in Castelo Visconteo a view to bringing professional operators together rather
than the public (who were entirely local), and to present cultural exhibitions
and events. The core of the event consisted of a collection of presentations
and round-tables, which I shall relate in detail in a later post.
Route of Historic Thermal
Towns, Crossroads of Europe
Tourists from other
continents: 50,000
For the Commission to achieve its principal aim of
maintaining Europe’s status as the top destination worldwide, it must not only
consolidate and enhance its innovative products, analyse the current relevance
of traditional products and examine the continued relations between Europe and
tourists’ various countries of origin. With this is mind, the Commission
collaborates regularly with European governments, the tourism industry and
airlines to boost the flow of tourists between, for example, Europe and Latin
America, making use of empty plane seats as well as accommodation available in
low season. The ’50,000 Tourists’ pilot initiative is in line with the
Communication on tourism 2010 which calls on the Commission to combat
seasonality, boost job creation, strengthen the image of Europe and cooperate
with third countries. The pilot phase of the project will encourage 25,000
South Americans to travel to Europe from October 2012 to March 2013, and 25,000
Europeans to travel to Latin America between May and October 2013. Applications
will be open to residents of all EU Member States, Argentina, Brazil and Chile
who want to travel because of familial, cultural or educational links, or an
interest in gastronomy or religious tourism. In the future, the initiative can
extend to other countries, both inside Europe and across the world, based
around common roots or cultural, educational or language connections.
Current partners:
- the governments of France, Spain, Lithuania, Poland,
Italian, Argentina, Brazil and Chile;
- Air France, Alitalia, British Airways, Iberia, the
Lufthansa Group, TAP Air Portugal;
- the European Tourism Association (ETOA) and the European Travel Agents’ and Tour
Operators’ Associations (ECTAA);
- Portugal, Romania, Greece and Malta have also announced
their interest in participation in the pilot experience.
For example, Spain intends to facilitate travel for residents
of Argentina, Brazil and Chile with dual nationality and aged over 60, as well
as Spaniards living in Argentina, Brazil or Chile over 60 and travelling with
Argentinian, Brazilian or Chilean spouses or children. Iberia will collaborate
with the Spanish government on this project. Passengers from Buenos Aires and
Cordoba (Argentina), Fortaleza, Recife and Sao Paulo (Brazil) and Santiago
(Chile) will be able to fly to Madrid as well as 35 other Spanish destinations
and 36 European cities. Corte Inglés is the first company to get behind the
’50,000 tourists’ initiative.
The Commission provides a great number of examples, regularly
updated, on its website. We have chosen two of them which are based relations to
do with culture and heritage, so they go further than mere statements of
principle or ‘memorandums of understanding’.
France will be promoting the initiative through the ‘European
Passion’ agreement and will encourage trips to French religious and spiritual
sites, and highlight French cuisine. Lithuania’s project will involve
Lithuanian emigrants and their family members, students in the fields of
tourism, history, theology, gastronomy, architecture and culture, restaurant
owners and employees and their family members, and anybody over 60.
Observatory and labels
It seems self-evident that these swiftly-launched practical measures will achieve consistency and, moreover, fully assess their impact only on two conditions: the creation of a label of European quality and an observatory, which does not just juxtapose results from different nations (which the OECD is already rightly doing) but seeks to track the way tourists truly practice European, and thus cross-border, tourism.
“Currently”, say the Commission,
“there is a wide variety of public and private initiatives that aim at defining
the principles and criteria to be used by European tourism stakeholders for
ensuring the development and provision of quality tourism within the EU.
However, these quality systems often show little consistency and coordination
as they usually focus on individual sectoral or territorial objectives without
following a European integrated approach. This fragmentation is a possible
obstacle to achieving an EU level playing field for providing high-quality
tourism service throughout Europe, which is likely to cause detriment to the
competitiveness of the European tourism sector.”
In light of this, professionals and member states took part
in a limited consultation last year with 19 questions on the idea of an
umbrella or framework label. The public presentation was arranged for 25
January this year in Brussels, the atmosphere of which I summarised as follows:
The discussions of January 2012, which were conducted very openly and in the
presence of delegates from the Member States and large organisations
representing professionals and consumers, were exciting for you could hear loud
and clear how the debates on subsidiarity in this context are far from over.
Quality labels of course already exist, not to mention the ISO standard or the
immense amount of work already undertaken in France and Italy. However, the
question is what purpose an umbrella can serve when the sun does not shine
everywhere as brightly.
Since then, a public consultation has opened with the aim of gathering opinions on potential EU action in this field from a wide range of interested public- and private-sector parties as well as the general public. In the introduction proposed for this consultation, the competition-based target is clear to see: “For Europe, it could function as a competitive instrument: at a secondary level, it could contribute to improving the profile of Europe as a set of high-quality destinations through emphasising the consistent quality of its tourism product.”
All there
is to do now is await the results.
I do not want to talk through the ‘European heritage label’,
which is also mentioned in the Communication, any more than I already have in
this blog’s first post. Firstly, I had the honour and the pleasure to be
involved in the project from the first meeting of the experts working with the
European Commission to finalise the application dossier and consequently I do
not want to blow my own trumpet, but more so because the call for application’s
first round will not be launched until 2013 for countries which have not yet
had use of the label in its experimental, intergovernmental phase.
I will simply stress that this EU programme, with criteria for
strengthening the idea of European citizenship, aims to draw tourists’
attention to cross-border sites and spaces which are highly significant for
Europe’s history. “In addition to
strengthening European citizens’ sense of belonging to the European Union and
stimulating intercultural dialogue, a Union action for the European Heritage
Label could also contribute to enhancing the value and profile of cultural
heritage, to increasing the role of heritage in regions’ economic and
sustainable development, in particular through cultural tourism, to fostering
synergies between cultural heritage and contemporary creation and creativity,
to facilitating the sharing of experiences and best practices across Europe,
and more generally, to promoting the democratic values and human rights that
underpin European integration”.
A virtual observatory?
This is, for now, the most difficult part of the plan to
implement. The results of a feasibility study are to be announced at the end of
2012, but three broad sectors have already been proposed:
- A statistical
database to better inform policy-makers whose key sectors are still in testing;
- Releasing regular reports which take a look at points which
need quick decisions over structural changes;
- A section for comparing observation policies of member states
and gathering good practices – a toolbox and manual will be prepared for this.
Coastal tourism
The European Commission launched a study on coastal tourism
in much the same way as they did for rural tourism and mountain tourism in the
late 1990s. It has again become relevant thanks to the European Parliament and
in the framework of the Directorate-General of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries.
Here, as well, a public consultation has just been completed. Its extension to
the Mediterranean has been crucial in light of the intensity of political and
social movements affecting this geopolitical area. It is clearly a political
priority for the European Parliament, and has also been taken into account by a
number of European Commission Directorate-Generals.
Back to the text
I have always tended to return to the actual texts. The
Communication’s final lines state that “European
tourism policy needs a new impetus. Faced with challenges which require
concrete responses and efforts to adapt, operators in the European tourism
industry need to be able to combine their efforts and work within a
consolidated political framework which takes the EU's new priorities into
consideration. Taking account of the European Union's new competences in the field
of tourism, this communication defines an ambitious framework for making
European tourism a competitive, modern, sustainable and responsible industry.”
The two years following this document saw the arrival of a working
environment in which the traditional forces – economic representatives of the
main sectors of tourism, trade union lobbies, civil society and experts who
have been planted in the Commission since the early 90s – came up against a new
generation of experts whose knowledge of new technologies and awareness of environmental
issues completely changed people’s views, and against a new group of operators
– I’m thinking particularly of those in charge of cross-border tourism and
European cultural routes – for whom cultural cooperation projects include a
tourism dimension if, and only if, the social and citizenship elements are not
just conserved, but moreover made an example of behavioural shifts with regard
to the planet and its inhabitants.
Not only will they not be contented with pious hopes but,
with their number on the rise, they will be demanding a radical transformation from
the post-war era impetus for mass tourism towards a demand that European
Commission funding is granted to initiatives which spread evenly across all regions
and engrain a type of tourism which harks back to the very origins of paid
leave, when wealth-sharing was the real driver.
I am certain that the clash between two worlds and attitudes
has just begun. A rereading of the history of tourism and of the three waves I
have discussed seems to me more vital than ever.
Elisée Reclus, the writer, walker, geographer and poet,
banished from France from 1872 to 1890 due to his involvement with the Paris
Commune, was on the editing team from the mid-19th century for the Guides Joanne, the predecessor to the Guides Bleus published by Hachette. In
1859 he wrote to his mother: “I have lived longer in an hour spent admiring snow
and rock of the Jungfrau than I have in long weeks in Paris or Sainte-Foy”.
Joël Cornuault, who prefaced two short books of Reclus’s which
were recently republished – Histoire d’un
montagne and Histoire d’un ruisseau
– writes: “nature as a real temple… These words, which we know of Baudelaire,
must be applied with fullest force when we look to Reclus. Through his family
circle, he was part of a line of cultural reformists (from Bernard Palissy to
Théodore Monod, via Rousseau and, in the United States, Emerson and Thoreau,
Ruskin in England), for whom the world, of divine creation, is the model which
man must look to, if not imitate, in his work… He liked to walk, to swim,
animals, trees, the great cosmic phenomena, impartial science, friendship and
philosophical camaraderie… He hated, and said as much in his writings, articles
and pamphlets, injustice, private property, violence, any form of clergy,
will-to-power, the ransacking of the beauty and freedom which is the planet, “non-dominated”
space, as he tells us at the start of Histoire
d’une montagne.”
Texts
cited:
Reclus Elisée. Histoire d’un ruisseau. Infolio. Collection Archigraphy Poche. 2010.
Reclus Elisée. Histoire d’une montagne. Infolio.
Collection Archigraphy Poche. 2011.
Van Middelaar Luuk. Le passage de l’Europe. Histoire d’un commencement. NRF. Gallimard. 2012.
A
personal viewpoint :
The summer following the creation of the European Coal and
Steel Community, I saw the Riviera from the luggage rack of a Solex bicycle
with my parents, happy to come back from it tanned, after what they told me.
They headed for the Azur by train, taking the Solexes with them, and found
lodging with a local family. I spent the summers preceding the signature of the
Rome Treaty on the beaches of Brittany staying in rather cosy, family hotels.
In 1958, my family took me to spend two weeks on holiday in a family guesthouse
near Evian just before I went to college. I would return there regularly over
the following years from my journeys around Europe.
Not to dwell on these two first stages in my holiday
memories, but I must thank my parents for making good use of the steady
increase in holidays between 1958 and 1968 to take me around Europe, at least
the western portion, every summer on the train or buses or coaches – they never
had a car – and thus expose me to the continent’s vivid history and its varied
heritage.
It was the year of the Maastrich Treaty when I joined the
Council of Europe to start work in a European institution, continuing a
programme of which the tourist element has grown over the course of time, a
programme which I have worked on as an expert since 1986. Nowadays, I am in the
‘active senior’ category of tourist; I have not needed to show the way to my
own children. They have found their own paths to knowledge of Europe, East and
West. My youngest has made good use of the options that the Erasmus programme
has offered her.
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