Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-09-07-Speech-3-183"
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"en.20050907.19.3-183"2
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"Mr President, I too wish to congratulate the rapporteur Mr Queiró on an excellent piece of work.
Tourism is one of the fastest-growing industries in the European Union. In Ireland alone, tourism revenue in 2004 amounted to EUR 5 billion and it accounted for 3.9 % of GNP. From my own perspective, I am particularly interested in the promotion of sustainable tourism, for a number of reasons. First of all, tourism is an indigenous industry – it does not rely on inward investment – and it is not a mobile industry in the sense that there is no off-shoring or outsourcing of jobs. Furthermore, it is a labour-intensive industry and, as such, provides employment for a wide range of people. Therefore, it is fully deserving of support from the Commission and a budget line should be set up to promote the tourism sector.
Tourism has the capacity to provide employment and generate economic activity in its own region and for its own region. This is of particular importance in rural areas, where numbers are declining in the traditional activities of agriculture and fishing. I welcome the comments of the rapporteur emphasising the need to develop farm holidays.
With regard to rural tourism, there is a need to link projects together for the purposes of marketing and promotion in order to create a critical mass, and it is essential to decentralise tourism functions to the regions.
The question of access by air, road and rail to the more rural areas is also vital, as the trend is for shorter holidays. That means that tourists will not spend two days of a four- or five-day break travelling to and from their destination. This is of particular importance in my region in the north west of Ireland. The short tourist season is a real concern, with the need to spread the demand outside the high season and promote tourism products for different tastes, different interests, different seasons and different age groups.
I welcome the proposal to introduce a Community-wide classification of hotel facilities and the promotion at EU level of voluntary standards concerning measures to improve safety aspects in hotels and tourist services in general.
Finally, having met a group of disabled people from Ireland yesterday and today on their Freedom Drive in Strasbourg, I was pleased to note that the rapporteur has invited the Commission to put forward an initiative to make tourism and leisure establishments accessible to people with reduced mobility."@en1
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