Maintaining the EU's status as the world's leading tourist destination is the aim of the Informal Meeting of Tourism Ministers, which is being held this Thursday in Madrid. The meeting will be preceded by the Conference of European tourism chiefs, which will discuss strategies for making the sector more competitive.

The EU received 380 million international tourists in 2007, which represents 42% of all international visits worldwide. Tourism generated nearly 5% of European GDP and employment for 5.2% of the active population. The indirect contribution was even more impressive: more than 10% of GDP and 12% of total employment.

Apart from its key role in the European economy, tourism has proved to be one of the most crisis-resistant sectors and even shows signs of a slight recovery and growth. The job-creation rate in the tourism industry is greater than the average for the European economy as a whole.

The Treaty of Lisbon, which came into force on December 2009,  expressly recognises the importance of tourism and, for the first time, provides for a specific EU authority in the field, where decisions will be adopted by codecision and qualified majority voting.

It is for that reason that promoting a socially responsible tourism model features among the priorities of the Spanish Presidency of the EU, in accordance with the aims set out in the European Commission's Communication 'Agenda for a sustainable and competitive European tourism'. 

At the Madrid meeting, measures will be studied for improving the relationship between competitiveness, quality and sustainability, not only to increase long-haul market share, but also to contribute to internal European market retention. 

The idea is to make European destinations more attractive, by means of cultural and gastronomic offerings, to tourists from the European Union, who make up 85-90% of international tourism in the EU. This, moreover, would contribute to fomenting European citizenship.