EU and Tourism Development: Bark or Bite?

In the absence of major programmes to strengthen the quality and competitiveness of European destinations, the role of the EU in tourism development has often been seen as fairly limited. Despite this, spill‐overs or side effects from adjoining policy areas with extensive European regulation or intervention can be equally important, and the paper examines key aspects of the EU's role in tourism development in order to discuss to what extent the traditional interpretation of a passive actor of little consequence should be modified or even discarded. Drawing upon European and Nordic documentary sources as well as existing specialist literature, the text first examines the development of an EU policy statement on tourism, and then two areas of EU policy – competition policy and regional development – are analysed with a view to establishing side‐effects in European and Nordic destinations. It is concluded that while policies specifically targeting tourism have been limited in reach and profile, the touristic side effects of other economic and social policies central at the European level have clearly been considerable, primarily by facilitating the emergence of new multinational tour operators and budget airlines, but also by supporting development of new services and experiences in parts of Europe where tourism has until now been a socio‐economic activity of relatively limited importance. Key Words: EuropeEU tourism policyregional policycompetition policydestination development Acknowledgements While responsibility for the text remains with the author, thanks are due to Anette Therkelsen, Pennie F. Henriksen and two anonymous referees for constructive comments. Notes 1. This paper uses the two most commonly used international data sets with regard to European tourism, produced by Eurostat and the UN organisation World Tourism Organisation respectively. 2. The private sector interest organisation World Travel and Tourism Council (Citation2006) claimed that while the "direct industry impact" was "3.6 per cent of total GDP", "the combined direct and indirect impact of the Travel & Tourism economy expected to total 10.3 per cent in 2006". Eurostat more moderately claims 5.5% as the tourism‐related part of the European economy (Anastasiadou, Citation2006). 3. While the per‐capita figures for both receipts from incoming and expenditure on outgoing tourism are among the lowest in Europe, the very low level of GDP per capita ensures that Bulgaria ends up in the high‐exchange category, because a relative large share of socio‐economic activity revolves around tourism. 4. Calculated on the basis of World Tourism Organisation (Citation2008). 5. For trips involving at least 4 nights away, the domestic share in France and Italy are 83 and 75% respectively, in sharp contrast to e.g. Germany and the UK which record 36 and 41%. 6. Calculated on the basis of 2005 data from Eurostat on tourist trips of four and more days.