Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-11-24-Speech-2-424"
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"en.20091124.35.2-424"2
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"Mr Leichtfried, in relation to the first question, I would say that we can always try. During the Austrian Presidency, there were a number of attempts to coordinate the start of the holiday period, although these met with no success. I would argue in favour of a further attempt being made, but I would also caution against over inflated expectations.
The notion that prevails in certain tourist areas that it is possible to coordinate holiday periods in Europe in such a way that these tourist areas can be at full capacity all year round is an illusion, and incidentally it would not have my support in any case. Everyone has a right to have a holiday at the time of year that best suits them and when the recuperation value is at its greatest. You are absolutely right, however, to say that neighbouring countries should make arrangements so that their holidays do not always have to begin on the same day everywhere. These are things that I believe are achievable and not only from the point of view of tourism policy, but which should be seriously tackled purely and simply in the light of environmental and transport policy.
As for the question from Mr Chountis, we have comprehensively researched the impact of the economic crisis on tourism and we have determined from 50 000 concerned parties across Europe that people are still going away on holiday – they are not doing without their holiday trips – but they are travelling less far, spending less money and are more likely to holiday in their own country. They are still demanding the same standards, though, which means that the ones who will gain at the moment are those who are able to offer a special price/service ratio.
Any measures that the Commission takes in this area can only be complementary to the Member States’ measures. We have no autonomous European tourism policy
and it would be too much, at this point, to itemise the great number of initiatives that aim to spread awareness across the world, and also within Europe, of how attractive Europe is as a tourist destination. I want to mention just one example, as it has recently been very successful. Three years ago, we launched the European Destinations of Excellence (EDEN) competition. The competition encouraged tourist regions in Europe to demonstrate their achievements in certain areas and three years of experience have shown that we have outstanding tourism products in almost every aspect all over Europe. The crucial thing is actually to also generate awareness of these tourism products. That is why we have created a web portal that provides for worldwide access with a single click to all tourist-relevant information from all the Member States."@en1
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