Opening session of the High-level conference on Tourism, in the EP in Brussels. Statements by Antonio TAJANI, EP President, Jyrki KATAINEN, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness, Elzbieta BIENKOWSKA, Member of the EC in charge of Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, and Irina BOKOVA, Director-General of UNESCO.

Brussels

TAJANI, Antonio (EPP, IT)

conference

BIEŃKOWSKA, Elżbieta (PL, EC)

KATAINEN, Jyrki (FI, EC)

competitiveness of the tourism industry (T)

BOKOVA, Irina (BG)

High-level conference on Tourism: extracts from the opening session

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Antonio TAJANI, EP President, The declaration issued in Rome on 25 March 2017 by the leaders of the EU institutions and the 27 Member States to mark the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Treaties emphasises that growth and employment are two of the Union&rsquo;s main priorities. On Parliament&rsquo;s behalf, my task is to ensure that action is taken to achieve these priorities in practice.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Antonio TAJANI, EP President, We must also focus more resolutely on industries such as tourism, which, although affected by the digital revolution, will still remain labour-intensive.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Antonio TAJANI, EP President, Europe, with its unique historical, cultural and creative heritage, landscape and nature, is ideally placed to cater for much of this new demand. Already today, with 550 million visitors, Europe is the world&rsquo;s leading tourist destination. By 2020, the number could rise to 700 million.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Antonio TAJANI, EP President, The next EU budget should provide incentives for traineeships and training by helping to reduce taxation on apprenticeships for people aged under 25. Cross-border traineeships should also be promoted under the Erasmus programmes, including Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Antonio TAJANI, EP President, The rules must be the same for all businesses, whether they operate with online assistance or purely offline. At present, digital platforms operate largely above - or outside - the law. Many of them occupy dominant positions on the market and pay very little tax, while transferring huge sums of money from the EU to other countries in the World.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Antonio TAJANI, EP President, We are asking the Commission to adopt a strategy that incorporates and updates the 2010 strategy, and to bring forward a proposal for a specific heading for tourism in the next budget.We are also calling on the Commission to assess the impact of other EU policies on tourism, beginning with EFSI and the completion of the single market in services and the digital single market. It is not by chance that we have chosen World Tourism Day to launch discussions on the future of the tourism sector.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jyrki KATAINEN, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness, An idea that comes to mind would be to build investments platforms in the tourism sector. These platforms could collect hotel renovation projects for instance. Smaller projects in particular can benefit from EFSI through investments platforms. We have recently published an easy 5 steps guide on how to set up platforms.

SOUNDBITE (English), El&#380;bieta BIE&#323;KOWSKA, Member of the EC in charge of Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, Under the New Skills Agenda we are supporting the set-up of the dedicated Tourism cooperation platforms. The initiative is called Blueprint initiative for sectorial cooperation. This platform will define the skills that the industry, many sectors, but tourism was chose by us as one of the seven sectors for the initial phase. It will define the skills that the industry needs to remain competitive.

SOUNDBITE (English), Irina BOKOVA, Director-General of UNESCO, Cultural tourism today represents 40 percent of global tourism. With over 350 World Heritage Sites, the European Union is rich in outstanding cultural heritage and is well placed to benefit from the growing demand from key markets, particularly China.

SOUNDBITE (English), Irina BOKOVA, Director-General of UNESCO, I see this as a unique opportunity to place culture back at the heart and soul of the European project in 2018 and beyond. I do believe that UNESCO and the European Union are natural partners in this regard.