Annals of the Constantin Brncui University of Trgu Jiu, Economy Series,

Special Issue/2015 - Information society and sustainable development

EU INITIATIVES REGARDING TOURIST DESTINATIONS SUSTAINABLE

DEVELOPMENT

CISMARU LAURA
University Lecturer, PhD,
Transilvania University from Braov
e-mail:laura.cismaru@unitbv.ro

DINC GHEORGHIA
Associate Professor, PhD,
Transilvania University from Braov
e-mail: gheorghita.dinca@unitbv.ro

DINC MARIUS
Associate Professor, PhD,
Transilvania University from Braov
e-mail:msdinca@yahoo.com

Abstract: Abstract: European Commissions concerns regarding sustainable development within the tourism industry have focused
for several years upon European tourist destinations as well. The latest European Tourism Policies, adopted by the European
Commission, include clear objectives and measures for European destinations sustainable development. Projects like EDEN -
European Destinations of Excellence, Calypso, VisitEurope.com or ETIS the European Tourism Indicators System for sustainable
tourism destinations are some successful examples of fully or partially achievement of EUs sustainable development objectives and
promotion of sustainable tourism development for European destinations. These initiatives created the best premises for European
Union to maintain its leading position on the international tourism market, as a collection of sustainable destinations which
together form the number one macro-tourist destination of the world.

Cuvinte cheie: European Tourism Policy, tourist destination, sustainable development

Clasificare JEL : L83, Q01, O21, O22, N44

1. Introduction
Europe is worlds most visited tourist region and it has the greatest diversity and density of tourist attractions
(European Commission II, p. 4). As described by European Commission, Europe is a small area that contains a great
variety of climates, landscapes, monuments and historic sites (European Commission I). Europe is considered and
therefore analyzed by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) as one of worlds macro-tourist
destinations. In the last several years, European Commission also concentrated its efforts on the process of image
creation for the European Union, as a distinct macro-tourist destination within the region of Europe. Many actions,
programs, policies and initiatives targeted this aim and, in time, this comprehensive approach proved to be successful.
At present, the European Union (EU) has a unique and authentic identity as a worlds macro-tourist destination,
different from Europe, as a larger macro-tourist destination. According to the most recent Tourism Policy adopted by
the EU Commission in 2010, the particularity of EU profile, as a macro-tourist destination, consists of it being a
collection of sustainable and high-quality destinations (European Commission VI, p. 7). As shown in Table 1 below,
the European Union (EU-28) can be considered as the number one or the star (Peto, D.; Puscasu, D., 2011) macro-
tourist destination in the world, with over 40% of the worlds international tourists in 2014 and an increase of 22
million arrivals, compared to 2013 (UNWTO I, UNWTO II). Together, the 28 countries from the European Union
shared in the same growth as Asia and the Pacific in 2014 (+5.3%), which can be viewed as an important benchmark of
EUs growing attractiveness on the international tourism market. In 2014, EU registered almost 80% of the
international tourist arrivals in Europe. In this context, EU, as a macro-tourist destination can be considered as a trigger
for Europe, showing that the initiatives implemented at EU level until present proved to be fruitful and profitable for
the entire region. Therefore, the EU Commission demonstrated a good tourist destination management approach,
mainly and steadily concentrated on the sustainable development of European destinations.

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 Annals of the Constantin Brncui University of Trgu Jiu, Economy Series,
Special Issue/2015 - Information society and sustainable development

Table 1 - International tourist arrivals by world region

Source: World Tourism Organization (Data collected by UNWTO as of January 2015)

Starting with the first European tourism policies, this sectors sustainable development was treated as one of
European Communities/Unions main responsibilities (European Commission II). At present time, with EU as worlds
leading macro-tourist destination, important challenges need to be tackled in order to defend and maintain this
important market position. European Commissions experts have identified two valuable sources for gaining tourism
competitive advantage reflected by the most recently adopted policies: sustainable development and high-quality. Great
steps have been taken in these directions at European level, programmatic documents have been adopted, authentic
projects have been developed and important actions have been implemented in European Unions tourism sector, some
of them presented within the present review.
Despite all these substantial achievements related to European tourism industrys sustainable development,
European Commissions experts identified some lack of visibility. As such, actions need to be taken in order to solve
this image related problem. However, the entire promotion approach is challenging because the significant number of
tourist destinations which make Europes macro-tourist destination and especially because of their great variety. United
in diversity, as the motto of the European Union states, can be a difficult to reach target also regarding the process of
building and following a common way targeting sustainable development of so many tourist destinations. However, it
seems that European Commission, together with member states, developed and implemented the correct instruments
and constantly showed a real intention to follow tourisms sustainable development direction, as the key source of
differentiation for EU macro-tourist destination. As mentioned before, following the statements from the most recent
EU Tourism Policy, the European Tourism positioning strategy is to consolidate as worlds leading sustainable macro-
tourist destination.
The importance of European tourist destinations within the EU Tourism Policies grew higher from one policy to
another; at present time, European Commission considers tourist destinations as important actors as tourism enterprises.
Nevertheless, many initiatives conceived for tourism businesses, focusing upon European tourism industrys
sustainable development, did not have the expected impact (European Commission VI). For that reason, in the last
period, many of Commissions efforts concentrated upon tourist destinations. The present paper focuses upon the EU
levels efforts regarding European tourist destinations sustainable development.

2. Sustainable tourism concerns at EU level

The first Tourism Policy, adopted by the European Communities in 1984, includes several paragraphs
explaining the importance of safeguarding the European heritage for the tourism industry and the efforts made at
European level in this regard (European Commission I). The document states that Europes natural and cultural
resources are a true magnet for millions of tourists every year and therefore they have to be safeguarded by all
Europeans as they are not simply our heritage, but resources which must be husbanded for the future (European
Commission I, p. 23). The written communication also includes a section which highlights the importance of reducing
disparities between all regions with tourism potential in Europe and presents the undertaken initiatives and the
European instruments (existing in 1984) to reach this goal (European Commission I).
In 2001, a second policy paper on tourism was adopted by the European Communities Commission, called
Working together for the future of the European tourism (European Commission II). For the first time, in this
document, the concept of sustainable development in tourism is closely linked with other two important concepts
quality in tourism and competitiveness. From this moment forward, these three concepts will go together in all
European Tourism Policies. Sustainable development is considered within this policy as one of the key challenges for
tourism businesses and destinations in Europe (European Commission II). Therefore, the Commission emphasizes the
critical importance of developing a sustainable development strategy for tourism in Europe, a so-called Agenda 21, in
order to conceive a set of principles, values and measures shared and implemented by all Europeans (European
Commission II).

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At the beginning of 2000, the Sustainability Working Group was set up by the Commission and the Member
States through the Tourism Advisory Committee. It formulated the definition of sustainable development in tourism as
follows: Sustainable tourism development meets the needs of present tourists and host regions while protecting and
enhancing opportunities for the future. It is envisaged as leading to management of all resources in such a way that
economic, social and aesthetic needs can be fulfilled while maintaining cultural integrity, essential ecological processes,
biological diversity and life support systems (European Commission II, p. 25). The experts of Sustainability Working
Group emphasized the importance of active implication and cooperation of all stakeholders from European tourist
destinations in the process of implementing sustainable tourism principles.
In 2003, the Commission adopted the first document that can be considered as a policy for the sustainable
development of tourism Basic Orientations for the sustainability of the European tourism. Concerns are revealed
within this document regarding the slow progress of sustainable implementation in the patterns of tourism consumption
and production at European level. The entire document states the need for a fundamental change in the European
tourism industry sustainability should be the only way to develop for this sector. Accent is put on the three pillars
structure of sustainable development in tourism: economic, environmental and social (European Commission III).
In March 2006, the European Commission launched another Tourism Policy, called A renewed EU Tourism
Policy: Towards a stronger partnership for European Tourism (European Commission IV). This policy focused on
three directions:
(1) Mainstreaming measures affecting tourism;
(2) Promoting tourism sustainability;
(3) Enhancing the understanding and the visibility of tourism.
Two priorities were included in the second above-mentioned direction: drawing up the European Agenda 21 for
Tourism and the implementation of several specific supporting actions aiming to promote the economic and social
sustainability of the European tourism (European Commission IV).
In 2007, the European Agenda 21 for tourism was adopted and communicated by the European Commission
Agenda for a sustainable and competitive European tourism (European Commission V). It is a strategic document of
key importance for the European tourism sector. It can also be viewed as a benchmark for the association of two
concepts: tourism sustainability and tourism competitiveness. From this moment forward, sustainable development is
considered one of the main sources for gaining and maintaining competitive advantage within the European tourism
sector. The European Agenda 21 establishes the main objectives for European tourisms sustainability, identifies the
main challenges, sets up a framework for future actions and assigns roles and responsibilities. Deliver economic
prosperity, social equity and cohesion and environmental and cultural protection are the central objectives established
for the European tourism, which should guide all tourism stakeholders in Europe (European Commission V, p. 4). The
Commission indicates a broad framework for future initiatives in the field of sustainable development of European
tourism which includes three major categories where action needs to be taken: sustainable management of destinations,
businesses integration of sustainability concerns and tourists sustainability awareness. Also, the document formulates
a set of nine principles that all tourism stakeholders should observe for achieving a competitive and sustainable tourism
at European level (European Commission V).
The most recent Tourism Policy elaborated by the European Commission in 2010 is called Europe, the world's
No. 1 tourist destination a new political framework for tourism in Europe and sets up a working plan for the
following period. Four priorities for action were identified for the European tourism:
(1) Stimulate competitiveness in the European tourism sector;
(2) Promote the development of sustainable, responsible and high-quality tourism;
(3) Consolidate the image and profile of Europe as a collection of sustainable and high-quality destinations;
(4) Maximize the potential of EU financial policies and instruments for developing tourism (European
Commission VI).
As such, two of European Commissions four main concerns regarding tourism sector at present time are
directly related to sustainable development. It is obvious that from this moment forward, for the European tourism,
sustainability will go hand in hand with high-quality, the two concepts being interrelated. These are the two key
elements which contribute to maintaining the competitive advantage of the European Union over the other macro-
tourist destinations of the world.

3. Sustainable development of tourist destinations within the last European Tourism Policy
The concept of tourist destination has received several definitions within the tourism literature in the last
decades, however as European Commission has recently provided its own definition, we can consider it as the
European definition of this notion. Accordingly, the tourist destination is the place of interaction between public and
private stakeholders and where almost all the SMEs in the tourism industry are gathered, the structure that shapes the
image of tourism and the main focus of tourism activity (European Commission II, p. 11).

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As mentioned in previous section, from the beginning of the 2000s, the significance of tourist destinations has
become equal to the importance of tourism businesses, as key players in the process of developing the European
tourism sector in a sustainable way. Tourist destinations became more and more important targets within the Tourism
Policies delivered by the European Commission.
As mentioned above, the latest European Tourism Policy, adopted in 2010 by the European Commission, makes
tourism industrys sustainable development a central concern. In this context, one of the four main directions for action
expressly addresses European tourist destinations, emphasizing the importance of consolidating European Unions
image and profile as a sustainable macro-tourist destination. Significant efforts have already been made to develop
European tourist destinations in a sustainable way, considerable results have been obtained, Europe being already
perceived as a collection of sustainable destinations, however the battle is not yet won. Future steps need to be taken
in order to preserve, defend and promote this Europes important competitive advantage as a macro-tourist destination.
To this end, several concrete actions were proposed in the newest European Tourism Policy, focusing on tourist
destinations, such as:
(1). The development of an authentic system of indicators for the sustainable management of tourist destinations
(European Commission VI, p. 11). The main aim of this action was to offer European destinations a useful tool to
evaluate the sustainability performances. Important steps have already been taken regarding this action and the main
achievements will be presented below, in the following section.
(2). The creation of a European label for Sustainable Destinations, the certification system being based on a
genuine set of European indicators, as previously mentioned. Unfortunately, no step was taken for the implementation
of this action (European Commission VI, p. 11). It can be considered as a valuable proposal, due to the fact that tourism
enterprises providing tourism accommodation services and campsite services already have such a certification scheme
and label, called the EU Flower (European Commission XII, European Commission XIII).
(3). The education of European tourists regarding tourism sustainability principles, so that they learn to value
efforts made at destination level and make responsible choices for their vacations (European Commission VI, p. 11).
(4). The promotion of Destination Europe (European Union), as a powerful brand and differentiating this
macro-tourist destination to other worlds macro-tourist destinations (European Commission VI, p. 12). After analyzing
the entire policy, we can identify two main sources for European Unions differentiation, respectively sustainable
development of European tourism industry and high-quality European tourism services. These are truly important
assets, however promotion efforts need to be made to offer competitive advantage to European tourist destinations as
well, which make Europe macro-tourist destination.
Comparing the newest European Tourism Policy with the previous ones, we can easily notice a different
approach, a much more practical and systematic one. The document advances an action framework with concrete
actions, thoroughly planned and clearly formulated. Also, an implementation rolling plan is available on the European
Commission website, in order to provide transparency and access to the ongoing process of implementing the agreed
action framework (European Commission VIII).

4. EU Projects for sustainable tourist destinations

Up to the moment of enforcing the Lisbon Treaty, on December the 1-st 2009, the European Communities had
no specific competences or attributions in tourism (Calabro, C., 2013). By consequence, all initiatives developed at
European level were conceived based on voluntary implementation. Additional measures were taken in order to
encourage stakeholders to put European policy measures into practice. In this process, the European
Communities/Union assumed a very important role, the one of helping European stakeholders undertake their
responsibilities for sustainable development through creating several instruments with the main aim of promoting the
exchange of good practice and dissemination of information, and flexible co-operation, partnership and networking
between stakeholders across Europe (European Commission III, p. 12).
EDEN is the acronym for European Destination of Excellence and it is the name of a 7 years European
Project launched in 2006 by the European Commission, aimed to promote sustainable tourism development models at
destination level across the European Union (European Commission VII). The entire project was based on the idea of
an annual contest, with a different theme each year, decided by the European Commission together with the national
tourism bodies, respectively emerging European rural destinations of excellence (2007), tourism and local intangible
heritage (2008), tourism and protected areas (2009), aquatic tourism (2010), tourism and regeneration of physical sites
(2011), accessible tourism (2013) (European Commission X). The 2012 edition was a special one, without a contest,
because it was aimed to enhance awareness of the entire EDEN Project, with no specific theme other than promoting
EDEN destinations. The eligibility condition for the European destinations willing to participate in the EDEN Project
was to be lesser known and less crowded. A European network of European sustainable destinations was created, as a
result of the implementation of EDEN Project.
In 2009, the European Commission launched a Preparatory Action called Sustainable Tourism. The Sustainable
Tourism Preparatory Action focused on supporting the creation and promotion of transnational thematic tourism

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products such as routes, itineraries or trails contributing to the development of sustainable and responsible tourism in
Europe. The main objective of Preparatory Actions was to prepare future EU actions in a specific field, offering real
support for transnational projects. Several transnational projects have been awarded with EU grants and directly
contributed to improving the profile and raising the visibility of some remote or less known European destinations
(Calabro, C., 2013, European Commission XIV). In 2009-2010, the above-mentioned Preparatory Action concentrated
on the creation of Iron Curtain Cycling Trail, as a model for sustainable tourism in Europe (***Iron Curtain Trail). In
the following years, several EU grants were awarded to projects aimed to improve the sustainability and
competitiveness of European cycling tourism. In 2011, the European Commission supported the development of the
EuroVelo.com portal which has as its main objective to promote the EuroVelo Network of cycle routes and to
contribute to developing more sustainable and responsible cycle tourism in Europe (***EuroVelo).
The social tourism Preparatory Action called Calypso also contributed to sustainable development of EU tourist
destinations. It mainly aimed to offer the possibility to less privileged citizens of the European Union to travel and
discover Europe (European Commission XV). As stated on the web-site of the European Commission, the Calypso
model promotes off-season tourism, particularly in regions where tourism is well developed but highly seasonal and
also gives less-known, small or emerging destinations the opportunity to promote themselves to a broader range of
European tourists (European Commission XVI). Therefore, Calypso can be considered as a win-win initiative, where
every European is offered the chance to go on vacation and visit other European destinations (EU citizens win) and EU
destinations win (the well developed destinations extend the season and the emerging, less-known destinations attract
tourists).
Since 2003, the Commission has stated its intentions to create indicators on the sustainability of European
tourism (European Commission III). The sustainable development of European destinations relies on several elements,
such as: the preservation of the diversity, community well-being, resources conservation, environment protection
(European Commission III, p. 7). To create a set of indicators covering all aspects of tourism sustainability, relevant to
European destinations, the EU Commission started a large research project. A call for tender was published in July 2011
for the creation of a European system of indicators for sustainable management of destinations and the project started in
2012 (European Commission VIII). The main result was the creation of the European Tourism System of Indicators
(ETIS) for sustainable destinations, launched at the beginning of 2013. It is a genuine set of 67 sustainability related
indicators defined as a useful tool to track destination performance and make better management decisions, as well as
influence adequate policies (European Commission IX, p. 7). ETIS is both a monitoring system and a benchmarking
tool for tourist destinations willing to evaluate and understand their profile from the sustainability perspective. Just like
other EU projects or initiatives in this field, ETIS can be used voluntarily by European destinations and it has the great
advantage of being flexible, according to the specific needs and traits of each destination. Two testing phases took place
in order to improve the initial indicators. The ETIS tool can be viewed as an important step forward at EU level within
the new legal context created by the Lisbon Treaty, which introduced a new type of EU competence the supporting
competence, covering the tourism sector as well (Calabro, C., 2013). According to Title I, Article 6 TFEU the Union
shall have competence to carry out actions to support, coordinate or supplement the actions of the Member States. The
areas of such action shall, at European level, be: [...] (d) tourism (European Union, 2012). However, as stated before,
the implementation of ETIS system of indicators remains voluntary because the genuine nature of this new type of EU
competence; as explained in Title XXII, Article 195 TFEU The Union shall complement the action of the Member
States in the tourism sector, in particular by promoting the competitiveness of Union undertakings in that sector
(European Union, 2012). EU Member States keep their full competence in the tourism field and EU complements,
supports and coordinates the action(s) of the Member States in tourism (Calabro, C., 2013). Following Lisbon Treatys
adoption, the EU officially stated the intention to use its new tourism competence to support the creation of the
European Tourism Model, which shall be a sustainable one, based on the principles set out in the Commission
Communication called Agenda for a sustainable and competitive European tourism (Council of the European Union,
2009).
Improving the information on destinations in Europe was one of the five recommendations formulated by
Working Group A in 2000 at European level (European Commission II). Also, creating networks of tourist destinations
has become a central target at European level ever since 2001 (European Commission II). The European Tourism
Destinations Portal Project (ETD Portal Project) was created aiming to develop a single entry point to Europes
tourism information and services in order to support both tourists planning a journey across several European
countries and tourist destinations within European Union (European Commission XI). The projects deliverable was the
destination web portal called visiteurope.com launched in 2006. In 2009, a new improved version of
visit.europe.com was launched. One of the activities proposed within the action framework in the newest European
Tourism Policy regards the promotion of the visiteurope.com website in order to increase the attractiveness of Europe
as a collection of sustainable and high-quality tourist destinations, particularly among emerging countries (European
Commission VI, p. 12). The European Commissions specialists considered that the visiteurope.com website should
become a more useful tool for European tourist destinations, providing real added value to the promotion of Europe
and its destinations (European Commission VIII, p. 16). Therefore, the web portal should be developed from a simple

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 Annals of the Constantin Brncui University of Trgu Jiu, Economy Series,
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information tool towards a digital marketing and management tool. As stated in the newest European Tourism Policy,
two elements should be highlighted on visiteurope.com: the sustainability performances of EU tourist destinations
and the high-quality of tourist services offered within European destinations.

5. Conclusions
The implementation of sustainable development principles and projects in EU destinations supports the
development of the European tourism industry in the right direction, from present and future generations perspective,
also perceived as added value for the image of destinations (European Commission IX, p. 15).
Several European Commissions valuable initiatives in this regard were totally or partially achieved and
implemented at EU level, such as the adoption of Agenda for Sustainable and Competitive European Tourism, the
EDEN Project, the Calypso Project, The Iron Curtain Trail Project, the ETIS Project or the VisitEurope.com Project.
Other genuine, important and more concrete actions were included in the newest European Tourism Policy. One of
these propositions regards the drawing up of a European Charter for Sustainable and Responsible Tourism, key
document setting the broad principles of sustainable and responsible tourism in relation with destinations, tourism
enterprises and their services but also in relation to tourists (European Commission VIII, p.11). This document has not
been delivered, yet we expect it to be a different type of paper, including more concrete aspects, because the next
proposed step would be to create a European Prize for tourist destinations and enterprises respecting the values
included in the Charter. Also, the creation of a European Label for Sustainable Tourist Destinations would be a valuable
asset for the European Union, as worlds leading macro-tourist destination. This initiative can be viewed as a more
elaborated extension of the successful EDEN Project, combined and based on the indicators developed within the ETIS
Project.
All these European initiatives are harmoniously interrelated and their joint development, achievement and
implementation would definitely bring a significant contribution to maintaining the competitive advantage of EU
macro-tourist destination, the ultimate target of the most recent European Tourism Policy. Our study reviewed
European Commissions action framework regarding tourist destinations sustainable development. As illustrated
above, significant steps have been taken in this direction during the last decade. Once the European Union gained a
new type of competence in the tourism sector, the EU Commission became more directly and concretely committed to
European destinations sustainable development. Thus, important tools were created, such as the ETIS set of indicators
for sustainable tourist destinations, allowing all EU destinations to follow the European Tourism Model, a sustainable
one by definition. With such powerful instrument available to implement, the European Union created the best premises
to maintain its leading position on the international tourism market, as a collection of sustainable destinations which
together form the number one macro-tourist destination of the world.
In this context, an interesting future approach could be to analyze the real impact that the implementation of all
these instruments, policy measures and projects has on the sustainable development of EU, as a macro-tourist
destination of the world. For such purpose, the comprehensive data provided annually by the World Economic Forum
within the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Reports can be used (World Economic Forum, 2015). As stated by the
authors of the 2015 Report, the aim of the Report () is to provide a comprehensive strategic tool for measuring the
set of factors and policies that enable the sustainable development of the Travel & Tourism sector, which in turn,
contributes to the development and competitiveness of a country (World Economic Forum, 2015, p. v). Therefore, we
consider it a valuable future direction for research regarding the validation of the action framework adopted and
implemented at EU level regarding the sustainable development of European tourist destinations.

6. Acknowledgments
This paper was supported by the Sectorial Operational Program Human Resources Development (SOP HRD),
financed by European Social Fund and the Romanian Government under the Project number
POSDRU/159/1.5/S/134378.

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