- “Thank you. Perhaps just one comment regarding data, uh, that was mentioned before by Missus Contura. Um, the commission, uh, is implementing a tourist data space. Um, currently, um, we have a consortium working on delivering the infrastructure, so it may take a couple of years to set it up. Um, the data space will give access to reliable data from, uh, sources that will be put at the disposal by various companies and those who want to, to participate in, in the data space. Um, my other comment is on unbalanced tourism. I don't like calling it overtourism because this is a phenomenon that happens in certain hotspots. We know many other places would very much enjoy having more tourists. And, uh, we heard before there are many regions that struggle to attract tourists. So the model that we want in Europe is to have a balanced approach to, to tourism and a sustainable model for tourism. Thank you.”
EU regulation of short-term rentals · EU strategy for tourism development
- “Next slide please. Now sometimes we talk about data space. Some people say data base. Well it's not the same thing. And I have to emphasize this because of course database is a repository of data. The data space actually is nothing but a way to make sure that information flows across sectors and across borders. So information encoded is usually impossible to share unless we have a common language is exactly as with people. If we don't speak a common language, we cannot talk between us. So a data space addresses two very important aspects. One is governance and the other is interoperability. So interoperability is this common language that we need. And the data space will address these two challenges and will combine the technology needed for the interoperability. Um, and set out the principles for sharing the data. And of course with the other component, we cannot talk about the data space because data space, the data is not centralized, it is shared on a voluntary basis. And that's a very important element because we rely on all stakeholders to share this data and to have this data. Next slide please. I cannot talk enough about the benefits of sharing data and of sharing data, um, uh, across, uh, across databases. Um, essentially, we believe that any stakeholder could benefit from having access to high, um, high quality information. The information is a driver of competitiveness, and we know how important competitiveness is in today's, uh, decisions. So any decision business policy can benefit from updated information from what is necessary to make sure that our companies are academia and dmos have it.”
Interoperability requirements for digital platforms · EU Single Market harmonisation
- “Um, so we have a good overview of that. Uh, next slide please. With respect to the to the call for evidence, which mainly covers the academic sector. Um, here we had quite a lot of responses also in particular for, for travel and and mobility. Uh next slide. Um, in addition to this written consultations, um, we wanted also to, to reach out and, and talk to the relevant, um, stakeholders. Um, just a few events that we had, uh, this year. Um, also on, uh, the, the youth structured dialogue that took place in March together with our commissioner, then, um, we had our experts, um, together for tourism, um, expert group in which, uh, many of um, of the businesses and stakeholders from the sector are involved. Um, they have met to discuss the theme of unbalanced tourism, uh, a theme that is very much relevant at this time. Um, we have also met to discuss on multimodal travel. Uh, we're going to have further workshops, uh, on AI, um, uh, also a plenary very soon on the 25th of December with the, with the experts we are meeting to discuss with destinations in Torino. I will have a good representation there. Um, in December and we are doing work together with the OECD. Um, indeed. We'll have a workshop, um, on startups, um, on the 9th of December. And of course, uh, in the beginning of next year, the dialogues will continue. First of all, of course, you are all invited to the European Tourist Day, taking place on the 26th of January.”
EU engagement with youth · EU strategy for tourism development
- “The more the more stakeholders participate in it, the more data will will flow and the more it will develop. Finally, on concerning the the assessment and the resources, I want to to respond to Mrs. Contreras. Um, question. Um, there is one instrument which is particularly important and which will find a way, perhaps at some point, to integrate it with the data space and which is the tourist dashboard. And this tourist dashboard allows us to get important information on indicators, including on Sustainability and it can be consulted by anyone. It is available on on the commission website. Finally, on the decree in Spain, indeed, um, administrative burden is something that we, uh, we try to to, to avoid supplementary administrative burden. Um, from what you're saying, it may be also that tourist companies in general, they do select a number of they need to work with a number of information in general. Um, so they have been doing this for for many years now. The question is whether this, uh, additional tasks are going to indeed increase the administrative burden. It appears that the one thing that we may have to look into, of course, it's also the question of, um, uh, compliance with the GDPR. So, um, um, we'll have to, to look into all that. Thank you.”
EU strategy for tourism development
- “Thank you. Chair. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to present where we are in terms of preparations on the sustainable tourism strategy. Next slide please. Um, we have launched in May this year, um, a number of consultations because we believe that this the strategy should be founded on very large consultation process. So we had targeted consultations with stakeholders, an open public consultation and also call for evidence. Um, and I'm happy to say that, um, the numbers show it very well. We had quite a lot of participation. I have to say three times more than for the current framework, the transition pathway for tourists. So I'm very happy to see that the stakeholders are, um, are indeed very involved in, in these consultations. Uh, next slide please. Um, the targeted consultation as well as the open public consultation were structured around ten themes, uh, going from sustainability, digitalization of the sector to connectivity and accessibility. Um, it may be quite small on the screen, but, um. Uh, we can see, um, that, uh, the main respondents to the targeted consultations, uh, were businesses. Uh, and that's very good to, to see that companies in, in the sector are interested and giving their opinions. Also destination management organisations with clear experience on the ground and business associations, member states have also responded to to the consultation. I will come back a bit later on the conclusions from that, um, on the open public consultation. Uh, next slide please. Um, we have also, uh, quite some interests. In particular, we had uh, all member states, uh, uh, respondents from all member states have participated in particular from uh, from Germany, from, from France, from Spain.”
Circular economy · Climate efforts · EU strategy for tourism development
- “So the European, uh, data space will allow data shares to be shared with broader audiences and will allow users to access information from diverse sources. What we aim to do with it, obviously, is to foster innovation, improving and personalizing tourism offer. This is particularly important for tourist companies. We can support the public authorities in making decisions on sustainability on their own offer on managing tourist flows. We talk a lot in this forum about unbalanced tourism data. Space would certainly be able to help with that. And finally, in supporting public authorities and making the best decisions, it will also allow us to have better statistics because all this data will feed into statistics. Finally, one last thought from my side. Data is as useful as we can make use of it because downloading any amount of information, yes, it may be useful, but if we don't have a purpose, a strategy, and the skills to use it, it will not be useful. So we are working closely with a lot of partners within the pact for skills, and we are also supporting tourist companies, in particular small and medium enterprises, to get the right skills through our grants in the single market programme. And of course, with your help here in the Parliament, we have also developed the D3 Hub Competent EU Competence Centre to help destinations better manage and make use of of data for tourist destinations. So this project started in 2024 and we have selected 40 destinations that are already benefiting from data management information and training. So that's it from my side. Thank you.”
Funding for vocational training · EU strategy for tourism development
- “So this project aims to to address the long standing challenge of fragmented and inaccessible tourist data by creating the common needed architecture. So Deploy Tour will enhance collaboration to help tackle recurrent challenges met by the tourism industry when it comes to to sharing data. So on the slide you you have under your eyes, um, you can see that under the data strategy, we have identified a number of challenges. These are in blue and specifically for Tourism. We can see that there are two prevalent, um, uh, challenges. So the first one is the fragmentation that all sectors share when it comes to data. This is actually multiplied a lot more for the tourism sector. And this is because of the number of high high number of SMEs in our sector. And why is this important. Because operators need to to share data. They need they need to have it as well in order to make informed decisions. It is also the case for the destination management organisations because, for example, they also collect data from the various means, for example, surveys in the airports from from hotels and so on. So this is very important data that can be capitalized on. Um, and then we know that all the data is potentially interesting for tourism. We know it's, you know, from the price of petrol to the school calendar, this is all important data for for tourism. And that can make the operator decide on the best solution when it comes to offers. And it also, um, it is essential for destination management organization.”
Digitalization of public governance & administration · EU strategy for tourism development
- “Thank you very much, chair. Honourable members, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for giving me the opportunity to present the tourism data space. We have been working for this project for about four years now, following the publication of EU Data Strategy back in 2021. The aim of the strategy was to create a single European data space, a genuine market for data where information can flow across sectors and across borders and be shared between um operators in order to boost innovation. Uh, we began with a webinar on challenges about data sharing. Um, and then we brought about the code of conduct for data sharing in tourism. Uh, that was an initiative that was industry led. Uh, and it was, um, promoted in 2023. Uh, then we had a number of extensive Consultations in the framework of the preparation of the Transition Pathway for tourism document that we have co-created together, and we have presented our plans for for the data space in the communication from, from the Commission towards European Data Space. Um, so this communication sets out the Commission's vision on the data space. Um, it is based on the recommendations of a preparatory study that we published in October 2023. Um, it's referred as the blueprint. It was on the basis of a grant under the Digital Europe programme. Um, and currently the deploy tool project has been tasked with deploying the components, the actual infrastructure for the data space. So this The project started working in October 2024 with the support of the Digital Europe programme. We are talking about a budget of €8 million and another €18 million has been earmarked if needed after 2027.”
Processing of health data · EU strategy for tourism development
- “So, um, there are ways to incentivize stakeholders to to share the data between themselves. There can be agreements. Some data can be purchased because we know data is not for free. The data costs money. So, uh, we are looking into this kind of, uh, possibilities for the data space. Now, um, on the aspect that was mentioned in relation to, uh, the platforms, um, of course the platforms have um, uh, very valuable data, but they also are interested to to gain more data and also to sell this data. So this will also be possible for them. If they want to participate again it will be completely voluntary. Um, I was asked about the project, how it's going to to unfold. We expect um, I mean the project has just begun. The, the main thing that we have to deal with is, of course, infrastructure that there is behind any data space. Um, with regard to scaling and to helping destination make use of data. Um, we have selected 40 destinations. So I think the first results next year, that would be, uh, for of the D3 hub competence. Um, so, um, in addition to that for the data space, of course, we expect that this will take longer because the cost of setting up the infrastructure, but also because of participation, because of course there is a bit of a network effect.”
Interoperability requirements for digital platforms
- “Uh, and we will also have specific workshop on, uh, promoting Europe, um, to third countries. And further dialogues between January and December or January and March. Next slide please. Uh, just some highlights from the consultation. Currently we are analyzing the responses. So I do not have a full, uh, full overview of uh or a report yet. I will have that in December. Um, in principle, what we have seen from the replies of the member states, there is consensus around priorities, in particular regarding the workforce, uh, need for upskilling and reskilling, uh, in particular regarding digital and green skills and, uh, environmental sustainability, smart governance and um coordination, enhanced capacity for destinations as well, um, as unbalanced tourism. This is something that is a priority for all member states being when it comes to seasonality management or, um, or mitigating overtourism where necessary. Uh, other areas are support to companies, uh, use of data and indicators and of course promoting Europe, um, to third countries. Lastly, uh, just a word on the estimated timeline. Next time please. Next slide. One more. Perfect. Thank you. Um, so as I said, we are currently analyzing the contributions and, uh, the adoption, uh, we estimate will be end of April, beginning of May. Um, it will build, uh, the strategy will build on the also on the council, uh, report that the commission will, uh, will publish uh, in December, um, which will give an overview of progress made by Member states in the last, uh, in the last three years, as well as on on the consultation. Thank you very much.”
Funding for vocational training · Youth employment & training · EU strategy for tourism development