European Union News - Tourism

On the occasion of World Tourism Day, the 2011 edition of the European Tourism Day will take place in Brussels on 27th September. On this occasion, it will be focus on the industrial heritage, differentiating the European tourism offer.

The European Court of Auditors (ECA) published a report with the conclusions on the results of touristic projects co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The report shows that all of the projects examined provided positive results in one form or another and furthermore, 98% of projects continuing to be operational at the time of the audit.

A EU funded research seeks restructuring air traffic across the region to meet the challenges head on. Current systems oblige pilots and air traffic controllers to communicate verbally. With this new technology would generate digitalised information, giving multiple user groups like ground crews access to information. The upshot is that shorter flight times, fewer delays and a better flow of information between airline and airport personnel will result.

The European Commission promotes an innovative collaborative project between South America and Europe aimed at having 50,000 additional tourists. New promotional campaigns will encourage 25,000 South Americans to travel to Europe, notably between October 2012 and March 2013, and 25,000 Europeans travelling to South America, notably between May and October 2013.

The plan approved by Parliament's Transport Committee foresee a closer cooperation between European police forces in the road. They will be able to pursue offenders in their home country by using the EUROCARIS data exchange system.

When Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted in 2010, air transport officials launched a no-fly zone. Thus, researchers from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and the University of Iceland have created a protocol to give traffic authorities the help they need to quickly determine if planes should be grounded when ash threatens airspace safety.

The European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, Androulla Vassiliou welcomed the “European Heritage Label” because according to her, it highlights sites that celebrate the history and development of the European Union. The first sites to receive the new Label will be announced in 2013.

According to a new Eurobarometer survey on the attitudes of Europeans towards tourism, a 68% of EU citizens travelled for private reasons in 2010 compared to 65% in 2009. These findings confirm other indicators that tourism has recovered from economic crisis. In addition, preference still inclines towards traditional tourist destinations.

The European Commission adopted a new regulation to facilitate pan European rail journey planning and ticketing, by forcing a standardisation of rail passenger data on fares and timetables. This means that key reservation and ticketing information will be inter-operable and exchanged between rail companies throughout the EU as well as ticket vendors.