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Recommendation 1835 (2008)
Sustainable development and tourism: towards quality growth
1. Europe has a long and successful
history of attracting visitors: it remains the world’s most visited
region offering a wealth of experiences in distinct history, scenery,
culture and lifestyles. Seven European countries – France, Spain,
Italy, the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria and the Russian Federation
– are among the world’s 10 most visited destinations. Overall, nearly
half of all visitors globally (478 million) travelled in European
countries in 2007, and tourist flows in Europe are expected to double
in the next two decades as mobility and the affordability of travel
increase with globalisation. This is both a development challenge
and an opportunity if European countries want to stay competitive
in the global contest for the gains in prosperity that tourism provides.
2. People-to-people contacts generated through travel and tourism
can facilitate mutual understanding and international diplomacy.
They help to build a community of values in Europe which stands
out as an example on the global scene. European countries, as represented
by the Council of Europe, should put human beings and sustainability
at the heart of their development policies, not least as regards
tourism. A long-term vision and a holistic approach to development
are necessary for Europe to lead the way as the most popular and successful
tourist destination.
3. Expanding on average by 3% to 4% every year, tourism has grown
into a major economic activity in Europe, directly accounting for
some 24 million jobs, 4% of cumulative GDP and €237 billion in annual
revenue. A quarter of all tourism is linked to business travel in
support of wealth creation, skills and technology transfer, entrepreneurship
and connections between markets. In the last few years, the development
of tourism has been particularly dynamic, although uneven, in central
and eastern Europe, enabling the region’s countries to catch up
with its western European neighbours in terms of economic development
and living standards but also creating major socio-economic pressures
as a result of swelling visitor flows. It is essential to concentrate efforts
on promoting the development of quality tourism in these states
and across the whole of Europe to allow tourism to make a substantial
and lasting contribution to overall balanced and sustainable development
while avoiding the excesses seen at some mass tourism destinations.
4. The quantitative and qualitative aspects can and should be
reconciled through the sustainable development of tourism based
on a synergy of economic, social, environmental and cultural benchmarks. Promoting
diversity, authenticity and quality in tourism is the key to lasting
success. Economic viability, local prosperity, quality of employment,
social equity, visitor fulfilment, local control, community well-being,
cultural richness, physical integrity, biological diversity, resource
efficiency and environmental purity are imperatives that should
be taken into account for shaping a long-term development vision
and strategies.
5. Safety and security are major prerequisites for tourism and
travel to prosper. Although Europe has a good reputation for safety,
it is not immune to security threats. Council of Europe member states
must stay vigilant and reflect on how security could further be
improved at all levels in a discreet way and in full respect for
human rights, ethical values and the rule of law. It is necessary
for the Council of Europe member states to review their alert and
crisis management systems (including evacuation plans), their communication
with the public regarding security and their cross-border co-operation
arrangements. The Council of Europe and its Parliamentary Assembly
should also study more closely the legitimacy of new security demands
for transatlantic travel recently presented by the United States
Administration with regard to European states.
6. With new technologies, evolving consumer behaviour and simplified
travel planning, congestion is increasingly frequent in transport,
accommodation and tourist sites in many European holiday destinations
and business hubs, while many peripheral or secondary locations,
on the contrary, suffer from a lack of visitor attention. Congestion
causes stress to visitors, disruption to local communities and often
a deterioration of tourist sites and services. There is an urgent
need to better manage tourist flows in order to optimise the use of
facilities and resources geographically and time-wise.
7. Our lifestyles, well-being and economies will be gradually
affected by climate change. In Europe, northern and southern regions
and mountain, island and coastal areas are likely to suffer the
worst effects but all countries will have to face more intense and
frequent climatic disorders and extremes, such as heatwaves, droughts,
heavy precipitation or storms, and related problems, including forest
fires, floods, effects on wildlife and biodiversity, coastal erosion,
infrastructure damage, infectious diseases, fluctuating water levels
and lack of resources. As a highly climate-sensitive sector – like
agriculture, energy, insurance and transport – tourism needs to
adapt and contribute to global efforts to tackle climate change,
essentially through cuts in greenhouse gas emissions from transport
and accommodation.
8. In many countries there are provisions in general legislation
and labour law guaranteeing paid holidays for employees and regulating
the conditions for taking them. Europe and most of the rest of the
world have opened up to tourism and have greatly simplified the
administrative formalities imposed on tourists. Because the gap
in incomes is increasing, as can be observed in all our countries,
almost 40% of the population can no longer afford a holiday, either
in their home country or abroad. Families, senior citizens, immigrants,
the young and people with disabilities are particularly affected.
Greater attention to the social aspects of tourism could help to
reduce the seasonality of demand and excessive geographical concentrations
of travellers, and support more stable year-round employment and
the development of disadvantaged regions, especially if more tourists could
be persuaded to travel outside the high season and/or the busiest
areas. Several important issues should be addressed: the physical
accessibility of tourist destinations and sites, the economic affordability
of holiday travel and better information on travel options for potential
travellers with special needs.
9. Tourism enriches when it takes place in a balanced way resulting
in a win-win situation for both visitors and hosts. If state authorities
and international institutions are primarily responsible for providing
political commitment and policies conducive to sustainability in
tourism, local and regional authorities are responsible as well
for the promotion of environmentally friendly tourism in their respective
areas. The contribution of the private sector is critical for yielding
results on the ground and providing feedback to policy makers. Public
and private actors should work together to agree, implement and
monitor the integrated quality management approach respectful of
reference-quality standards for tourism services and products. Whilst
tourism and sectoral associations can act as information relays
between state authorities and local actors, public-private partnerships
might serve to realise pilot projects, promote corporate social
responsibility and implement equitable employment schemes, improved
pricing models, innovative destination marketing and investment planning
compatible with environmental, cultural and social imperatives.
10. Tourism is first and foremost about people of all ages, interests
and skills. Quality tourism contributes to cultural diversity and
intercultural dialogue. Quality tourist services require dedicated
and competent people involved as local inhabitants or tourism professionals.
Hospitality, which implies a caring attitude towards people, traditions
and heritage, and knowledge of foreign languages, plays an increasingly
prominent role. It goes together with sustainability based on responsible
consumption and production patterns to minimise resource waste and
pollution, and emphasis on value rather than volume. These notions
should be taught early on, at school. A fair share of revenue from
tourism should be reinvested in local development.
11. Sustainable development of tourism holds much promise for
Europe and beyond. Growth and sustainability are compatible targets
when properly managed. Development challenges, which stem from evolving
lifestyles, economic growth and restructuring, demographic trends
and globalisation, call for calibrated national, regional and local
but also collective, pan-European responses. In this context, the
Assembly underlines the importance of studying the implications
of tourism growth on infrastructure development in Council of Europe
member states.
12. The Parliamentary Assembly therefore asks the Committee of
Ministers to incite governments of the Council of Europe member
states to:
12.1. ally long-term thinking,
best practices and a sum of ambitious economic, social, environmental and
cultural benchmarks for shaping national tourism development policies;
12.2. screen the compatibility of national tourism legislation
and policies with the principles of sustainable development and
relevant Council of Europe conventions in the environmental and
cultural fields;
12.3. involve tourism in the implementation of existing commitments
under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change with its Kyoto
Protocol and contribute to the preparation of the new package of
measures for the post-2012 period;
12.4. support the implementation of international co-development
policies, including the Millennium Development Goals, environmental
agreements, the World Tourism Organization’s Global Code of Ethics
for Tourism, the Clean Development Mechanism, and multilateral and
bilateral aid programmes, in order to help the emerging economies
to match their development needs with the drive for more tourism;
12.5. promote domestic – intra-country and intra-European –
tourism whereby distances travelled are shorter and means used can
rely more on public transport;
12.6. mitigate the impact of carbon emissions due to long-haul
travel and transport, not least through the ‘polluter pays’ principle
and a greater participation by European airlines in the European
Union Emission Trading Scheme, as well as via tax incentives encouraging
a shift from road to rail in the transport of goods through major
European transit corridors;
12.7. encourage responsible consumption and production patterns
minimising resource waste and pollution (especially as regards water
and energy use, recycling, waste management, forward planning, etc.)
and propagating meaningful alternatives (such as greater recourse
to renewable resources, public transport, sustainable construction,
etc.) in providing tourism services;
12.8. promote the sharing of knowledge and good practice on
sustainable tourism development with other countries and regions;
12.9. consider restructuring national tourism organisations
to work as public-private partnerships;
12.10. promote rural tourism, in particular in less developed
regions, by using incentives – including of a financial nature –
to stimulate the inhabitants of those regions to consider developing
tourism as a possible secondary income;
12.11. support the development of family-friendly travel and
accommodation options, for example by creating foundations for the
promotion of family holidays which offer suppliers an additional
incentive for developing new services for the target group;
12.12. accelerate the implementation of the Council of Europe
Disability Action Plan 2006-2015;
12.13. encourage and facilitate travel to various European destinations
by certain categories of travellers (the young, the elderly, families,
repeat/experienced visitors and especially people with disabilities
who have specific needs and for whom lack of adequate infrastructures
can discourage them from travelling as tourists) as a means of ensuring
a more even geographical and seasonal spread of visitor flows across
European regions;
12.14. carry out regular national and enterprise security audits;
12.15. establish or designate, as may be appropriate, multilingual
national tourist safety focal points and emergency call centres;
12.16. encourage the provision of multilingual material in museums
and other places frequented by tourists and to abandon the discriminatory
practice, wherever it still exists, of not allowing foreign tourist guides
who nevertheless satisfy the quality standards in force in the country
visited;
12.17. reassess their alert and crisis management systems (including
evacuation plans), their security communication with the public
and their cross-border co-operation arrangements;
12.18. make better use of new security and defence technologies
for civil protection, including in the tourism sector;
12.19. set up regulatory incentives and binding minimum targets
for promoting sustainable construction and renovation of buildings;
12.20. seek to channel a fair share of direct and indirect income
generated from tourist visits towards the protection, maintenance
and appropriate development of cultural and natural assets;
12.21. support the development of tourism as an alternative source
of local income and jobs in areas undergoing economic decline and
depopulation, especially in rural and mountainous regions;
12.22. promote quality certification schemes for tourist services
and products;
12.23. study the feasibility of including hospitality and sustainable
development concepts into school curriculums;
12.24. ensure the effective protection of tourists’ consumer
rights.
13. The Assembly invites the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities
of the Council of Europe to:
13.1. study
the impact and implications of low-cost travel on local development
and employment conditions with a view to possibly formulating guidelines
on the matter;
13.2. carry out comparative studies of visitor management frameworks
and prepare guidelines on the subject;
13.3. ensure effective local oversight regarding the implementation
of regulations on spatial planning;
13.4. encourage local and regional authorities to promote rural
tourism while fully respecting the principle of sustainable development.
14. The Assembly invites national parliaments to ensure that national
legislation is in place with a view to orienting investors, tourists
and other stakeholders and ensuring an appropriate government response
to sustainable tourism development issues.