Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-02-17-Speech-4-226"
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"en.20000217.11.4-226"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, I should like to start by thanking Mr Viceconte for his report, which has drawn our attention to a sector which is all too often underestimated. Tourism is a social, economic and cultural phenomenon which affects most European citizens, either as the recipients or the providers of a wide variety of services. Every year, nearly 200 million Europeans leave their homes for a short time in order to travel, usually to other countries in Europe. Moreover, Europe is still the main destination for tourists from third countries, even though it faces increasingly stiff competition and an increasingly diversified and attractive range of products.
Since the Treaties contain no specific legal basis for a real Community tourism policy, the European Union must help to improve and encourage cooperation in this sector, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, in order to take practical advantage of the potential which tourism offers in terms of employment. Vocational training and a mobile workforce are important tools in the strategy to fight unemployment in Europe especially, as far as tourist service providers are concerned, in meeting multicultural demands and ensuring that services are tailored to customers.
Employment in the tourism sector is often highly seasonal and precarious, thereby hampering its sustainable development. It is therefore even more urgent that we acquire and disseminate managerial and technological skills in order to promote new means of production and a supply of tourism which reflects market developments as closely as possible. As the report notes, the adoption by the Member States of tax incentives for SMEs in order to reduce labour costs would be an excellent way of promoting growth in employment in labour-intensive sectors and, consequently, in the tourism sector.
This sector of activity is also a deciding factor in the economic and social development of less favoured regions, especially the most remote and island regions, which have undisputed assets in this area. Let us not forget that, in the most remote regions, tourism is the most important industry in terms of income. The income and employment generated by tourism help enormously in reducing imbalances and encouraging their economies to converge with the average rate of growth in the Community. In addition, tourism can promote a certain cultural and economic rapprochement, insofar as it makes us more aware of other European cultures and thus helps respect for European ways of life to develop.
It goes without saying, therefore, that tourism, developed rationally in the long term, should represent a sustainable source of income for local economies, while safeguarding and enhancing the value of the rural, cultural, historical and environmental heritage. I should like to close by stressing the essential role which the European Union should play in promoting new forms of tourism in new places which will allow continental Europeans to discover the most far-flung destinations in Europe, namely the most remote regions."@en1
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