Developing tourism has a direct impact on economic, social and environmental conditions; consequently, it can and must be an important means of enhancing European citizens' quality of life and must be used as such. However, in order to ensure that this potential is effectively harnessed in the longer term, tourism must meet sustainability requirements which all the players involved – public and private bodies, businesses and users – must in turn observe.employment, businesses, social cohesion, stability, the environment.

Gruescu Ramona

Mitrache Marius

Nanu Roxana

English

Research Papers in Economics

 
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Management – Marketing - Tourism 
TOURISM, PART OF EUROPEAN POLICY 
Lect. Ph.D Gruescu Ramona 
Assoc. Prof. Ph.D Mitrache Marius 
Lect. Ph.D Nanu Roxana 
University of Craiova 
Faculty of Economics and Business 
Administration 
  Abstract: Developing tourism has a direct impact on economic, social 
and environmental conditions; consequently, it can and must be an 
important means of enhancing European citizens' quality of life and must 
be used as such. However, in order to ensure that this potential is 
effectively harnessed in the longer term, tourism must meet sustainability 
requirements which all the players involved – public and private bodies, 
businesses and users – must in turn observe.   
Keywords: employment, businesses, social cohesion, stability, the environment. 
Tourism is widely recognized around the world – and especially by the 
European Union and its institutions – as an area of economic activity of strategic 
importance in achieving a range of objectives which lie at the very heart of the EU's 
existence, its policies, and its desire to create a better Europe for present and future 
generations.  
It is important to point out that the only reference to tourism in the EC Treaty, 
as consolidated at Nice, and following the revision and expansion of certain protocols, 
is in Part One: Principles, Article 3(u), which reads as follows: "For the purposes set 
out in Article 2, the activities of the Community shall include, as provided in this Treaty 
and in accordance with the timetable set out therein:(…) measures in the sphere of 
energy, civil protection and tourism." 
Several Commission and Council documents have attached importance to 
tourism as an instrument for generating employment, but it may readily be agreed that 
tourism nevertheless has a very low profile among European policies as a whole, and 
that it should perhaps be strengthened and expanded in line with the universally 
accepted strategic importance of tourism at present and, most probably, in the future. A 
higher profile for tourism in the activities of the EU and of its various institutions and, 
more clearly, the coordination of all Community policies affecting tourism have been 
both called for and predicted. For this to happen, more and better data on all aspects of 
tourism and the way it ties in with other sectors must be available in the future, so that 
tourism's contribution to the quality of life and social cohesion can be accurately 
evaluated in both economic and social terms. 
Careful attention should also focus on determining the future role of tourism in 
shaping the Europe which will emerge from the European Convention. There must be 
initiatives to ensure that tourism and tourism policy are given full recognition in terms 
of their economic importance and capacity to create employment, their potential 
contribution to culture and mutual understanding among the peoples of the world, and 
as a tool for creating a Citizens' Europe.  
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New forms of tourism  which are sustainable  in economic, social and 
environmental terms, and which all parties seek, will be determined by this set of 
conditions. The special contribution made by sustainable tourism to achieving the 
strategic objective of the Lisbon summit – "to become the most competitive and 
dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic 
growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion" – is generally recognized 
and must be emphasized. 
Against a new, less dynamic economic backdrop in which fewer jobs are being 
created, the Brussels Council of 20 and 21 March 2003 sought to turn words into 
actions and ensure that the Union and the Member States live up to their undertakings – 
"we reaffirm our strong personal commitment to the timely and effective delivery of 
reforms across the three pillars of the Lisbon strategy – economic, social and 
environmental". 
The Brussels Council established new priorities which, in practical terms, mean 
giving fresh impetus to entrepreneurship and innovation and strengthening the internal 
market as a means of enhancing competitiveness and placing it centre stage both within 
the economy in general and tourism in particular. 
Tourism is widely agreed to be of great importance not only economically, but 
also socially and environmentally, in the European Union and worldwide. Where 
tourism is already well developed, people count on it to continue being what it has been 
in the past, a source of wealth creation, high employment and a high quality of life, 
while people in less-developed areas look to tourism as a potentially crucial means of 
escaping from poverty, securing economic progress and social development and 
meeting convergence objectives. 
The tourism industry in the European Union comprises some two million 
businesses, mostly SMEs, which account for about 5% of both GDP and employment. 
This figure varies from 3% to 8% depending on the Member State. Tourism also 
generates a considerable amount of activity in other sectors, such as the retail trade and 
specialized equipment, to a level of around one and a half times that of tourism itself. In 
terms of turnover, over 80% of the tourism undertaken by Europeans concern to 
individuals or families. The remainder is business tourism, in the broad sense. It varies, 
depending on the country, from barely 15% to over 30% of the total volume, the highest 
proportion relating to Nordic Countries. EU households earmark around one eighth of 
their personal expenditure for tourism-related consumption, a figure which varies 
relatively little from country to country. 
Community tourism is largely domestic. 87% of tourism activity recorded is 
attributed to its own citizens with only 13% to visitors from non-member countries. As 
for the tourism of EU citizens, three-quarters remain within the EU, the remaining 
quarter going to other parts of Europe and the world. 
Tourism is one of the sectors of the European economy with the best outlook. 
Forecasts indicate a steady growth of tourism in Europe, stronger than the average 
economic growth. This is due to factors such as the increase in time for leisure activities 
and its social importance, together with global economic growth.  
Over the past few years 100,000 jobs a year have been created in Europe in the 
hotel and restaurant sectors alone. Europe, with the greatest diversity and density of 
tourist attractions, is the most visited tourist region in the world. Despite having a lower 
growth rate than the world average and than certain up-and-coming overseas 
destinations in particular, the volume of European tourism is expected to double over  
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the next 20 to 25 years, with a net increase, in terms of expenditure and yield, of around 
3% per year. Employment will rise by about 15% over the next ten years." 
Although tourism is not directly part of common EU policy, a number of 
European institutions are engaged in measures and actions which affect tourism because 
of their horizontal nature, or which rely on tourism in order to achieve a range of major 
EU objectives, including sustainable development, employment, economic and social 
cohesion, etc.: in other words, a better quality of life for European citizens. 
Tourism is a highly complex phenomenon on account of the wide variety of 
factors which determine its shape, organization and development. Some of the 
numerous factors interacting with tourism merit close attention: tourists, employment, 
businesses, social cohesion, stability, culture and heritage, accessibility to persons 
with disabilities, the environment, peace and solidarity, and the roles of the 
various players. 
Tourism and tourists 
Clearly all economic and social activity needs to focus on the individual. 
Tourism, like any economic activity involving personal, individual and collective 
relations between peoples, must above all meet the needs of people, as citizens of a 
nation, European citizens and, ultimately, citizens of the world. 
The tourist, as consumer, must be both the beneficiary of services and the 
source of demand under conditions favorable to the sustainability of tourism and its 
availability to all. Various initiatives can be adopted with a view to designing a form of 
tourism for the future which will meet these requirements. 
Tourism and employment 
Various large-scale studies have repeatedly highlighted the enormous current 
impact and the extraordinary potential of tourism as a source of jobs. But in order to 
turn this into reality, in socially and economically sustainable terms, various conditions 
have to be met. The fact that tourism is an economic activity fundamentally based on 
personal services means that any new tourist activity generates new jobs, but tourism 
can only be high-quality and sustainable if it generates high-quality jobs. 
Various initiatives could be adopted with a view to ensuring that in the future 
tourism is able to generate more and better jobs in tourist enterprises and areas. 
Tourism and businesses: entrepreneurial competitiveness and social responsibility of 
businesses 
Tourism is fundamentally a complex economic activity, a group of economic 
services and sectors governed by market rules and based on companies seeking 
competitiveness, wealth creation, and which ultimately create employment and quality 
of life for ordinary people, both as users and as workers in the sector. If this economic 
activity is to be sustainable, now and in the future, a number of conditions have to be 
met which can be underpinned by various initiatives. 
Tourism and social cohesion: impact and social balance of tourist activity 
Tourism is a powerful means of promoting contacts between different peoples, 
while at the same time generating economic and social well-being in tourist areas. 
Often, however, social relations in the local population have been affected by a  
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perceived loss of the traditional balance, in the face of an influx of visitors exceeding 
several times over the number of local residents, and a consequent trend to 
standardization in products, including tourism products, and in social relations. 
Developing the potential of tourism in a positive way and reducing the risk of social or 
cultural disruption is the basis of socially sustainable tourism. 
Maintaining socially sustainable tourism, from the point of view of the social 
cohesion of local areas and people, requires that a number of conditions be met by 
means of various initiatives. 
Tourism and stability: reducing seasonal bias 
The seasonality of tourism has been described as the sector's major outstanding 
issue, in that it is the cause of serious imbalances because it does not continue 
throughout all the potentially effective periods, with serious consequences for 
businesses, people employed in tourism, tourist areas, and ultimately tourism's proven 
capacity to generate wealth and prosperity. Seasonality first and foremost means under-
utilization of physical capital (equipment, buildings, infrastructure etc.) as well as 
human capital, which is idle for much of the year. The result is clear: if there is no 
tourism, sector workers do not get paid and have to seek other activities or else join the 
ranks of the unemployed during the off-season. 
In some cases this period of inactivity is long, in others short; in some cases it 
is during the winter and in others during the summer, but in almost all cases it will have 
damaging consequences throughout the year. In all cases the stability of employment, 
which is a precondition for the quality of employment, is under threat, and in other 
cases companies' profitability and competitiveness will be compromised by seasonality 
and consequent loss of revenue, which is a grave threat to the sustainability of 
employment and to the whole of tourist activity. 
Tourism, culture and heritage 
The rich cultural heritage of towns and rural areas throughout Europe is 
undoubtedly a major attraction for tourists and travelers. The diversity of customs and 
traditions of Europe's rural areas is also a source of intangible, but very real wealth, 
which tourism can help preserve and exploit. Some of these intangible cultural values 
such as craftsmanship, music, oral traditions, customs, languages, dances, rituals, 
festivals, traditional medicine and remedies, cuisine etc. can form an integral part of 
some new forms of socially sustainable tourism. Similarly, sporting events are ideally 
suited to tourism and to the exchange of different values between peoples. There are 
two possible approaches to the relationship between tourism on the one hand and 
culture and heritage on the other: 1) exploiting the various aspects of this culture and 
heritage, with tourism as a means of maintaining, preserving and improving them, or 2) 
destroying these assets through irresponsible consumption. The first option is 
sustainable, and the second is socially unsustainable. 
Tourism and accessibility for people with disabilities 
Tourism has become an extremely important social phenomenon involving 
millions of people throughout the world, especially in Europe; not only is it an 
unprecedented force for wealth creation and economic progress, but also a crucial factor 
in improving knowledge, communication, human relations and mutual respect between 
different peoples. Tourism is of major benefit to society and should be within  
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everyone's reach, with no sector of the community being excluded whatever their 
personal, social, economic or other circumstances. People with disabilities – 10% of the 
total EU population – are becoming more integrated socially and economically and 
hence participating more and more in tourist activities despite all the impediments and 
difficulties which continue to prevent them from accessing tourist facilities and services 
on a regular and normal basis. 
Removing and lessening these barriers is not only a must on grounds of equal 
rights and opportunities and non-discrimination, as championed by the EU and its 
Member States, but is also an effective way of including new groups of people in 
tourism-related activities, thus contributing to the growth of an economic sector which, 
especially in the southern European countries, has a direct impact on the creation of 
wealth and jobs in the interests of society as a whole. 
Tourism and the environment 
In the recent past tourism and the environment have been seen as mutually 
antagonistic: the wealth generated by tourism was at the expense of the environment, 
exploitation of the best sites, preferably by the coast or in the mountains, without 
consideration for such factors as biodiversity, the resources already there, scale or the 
capacity to absorb development. Faced with a difficult choice between two factors 
which were – wrongly – presented as mutually exclusive, the general response can be 
clearly seen from the situation we find ourselves in today: we opted for growth, wealth-
creation, even if it meant damaging the environment. And this, paradoxically, in an 
activity which is based on preserving the attractiveness of nature. This undoubtedly 
stems from two different ways of looking at things: the short-term vision of immediate 
real estate profits and the long-term vision of a sustainable and competitive industry. 
Once again we face the need to establish conditions and initiatives conducive to new 
forms of environmentally sustainable tourism. 
Tourism, peace and solidarity 
Tourism is just the opposite of war. War means the invasion of one country by 
another, aggression, the destruction of nature and heritage, the humiliation and even 
death of human beings. Tourism on the other hand means a welcome, interaction, 
getting to know a place, conserving the environment, wealth – in short, peace and 
friendship between people. If we only love what we know, tourism, as a means of 
bringing people closer together, is a force for harmony and peace between nations, 
cultures, religions and individuals. Democracy and political and socio-economic 
stability must certainly contribute to this objective, in the countries tourists come from 
and those they visit. 
Understanding between peoples and the promotion of ethical values are at the 
root of sustainable and responsible tourism; solidarity between peoples can grow from 
acquaintance as tourists. 
Tourism and the players in the sector 
The vast range of stakeholders involved in tourism makes it advisable to 
differentiate the role each plays in this complex task of defining new forms of 
sustainable tourism. It is the responsibility of political and institutional policymakers to 
define the appropriate framework in which new forms of sustainable tourism are 
possible and can be promoted by means of the full range of instruments at the disposal  
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Revista Tinerilor Economi ti 
of the public authorities. The political priorities of this strategy of accessible and 
sustainable tourism must be geared towards ensuring that tourism is taken into account 
in all horizontal policies and in all relevant common policy areas. 
REFERENCES  
1.  ***    Commission Green Paper on the Role of the Union in the field of 
tourism (COM(95) 97 final) 
2.  ***  Commission Communication to the Council, the European 
Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee and the 
Committee of the Regions - Working together for the future of 
European tourism 
3.  ***  Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on the 
Integration of disabled people in society (2002/C241/17) 
4.  ***  Agenda 21. Sustainability in the European tourism sector. 
Reference document. European Tourism Forum 2002, 10 
December 2002 
 

21. Sustainability in the European tourism sector. Reference document. European Tourism Forum

Communication to the Council, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions - Working together for the future of European tourism

TOURISM, PART OF EUROPEAN POLICY

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