The Transition Pathway for Tourism, published by the European Commission on 4 February 2022, is the first 21st century European framework to establish a medium- to long-term strategy for the tourism sector.
The challenges facing the sector, which were heightened by the impact of the pandemic, and the goals set by the renewed EU Industrial Strategy - 2021, led to the European Commission selecting tourism as the first of the European Union's 14 industrial ecosystems for which to present a transition pathway.
This document is the result of an extensive process of co-creating with stakeholders by means of a public consultation on possible transition scenarios and more than 30 workshops and meetings held with key players in the sector.
The process, which was based on the Council Conclusions adopted during the Portuguese Presidency of the European Union, helped identify the actions, targets, and conditions necessary for both a green and digital transition, and to improve the long-term resilience of the tourism sector. Via 27 areas of action, it lists issues such as the need for economically viable and ecologically efficient tourism services, the digitisation of tourism services, and information-sharing within the sector, and the creation of cross-border and cross-sector synergies, among others.
Implementation process
_ 8 February 2022 - at the EU Industry Days event - a prominent panel dedicated to tourism, in which the European Commission and stakeholders discuss the Transition Pathway and the next steps for co-implementation;
_ 1st semester of 2022 - Period of promotion and joint dissemination (European Commission + Member States + Destinations) of programme outlines and proposed actions;
_ 2022/2023 - Stocktaking promoted by the European Commission (own or carried out by consultants) that qualitatively indicates (both in the European Union and broken down by Member States and/or Destinations) areas and sub-areas of economic and social operation, with concrete indicators to measure the progress of the goals identified
_ 2nd semester of 2025 - Mid-project review of the targets, goals, and actors responsible for the actions in order to confirm not only their capacity for action, but also to ensure compatibility with any European Union regulations that are planned or under development.
Taking advantage of the opportunity to be the first sectoral ecosystem to have its Transition Pathway published, negotiations have begun on the European Agenda for Tourism 2030/2050, in which Member States, the European Commission, the other European institutions and all stakeholders are working together to design a more ambitious strategy for the sector, ideally with biennial roadmaps of concrete actions.
