EuroGîtes
European Federation of Rural Tourism
From
Competition to
Co-operation
Andy Woodward
President, EuroGites
European Tourism Forum 2013
Vilnius, 17/18-October-2013
Member organisations
from:
Austria
Belarus
Belgium (Wallonie + Flanders)
Bosnia-Herzegóvina
Bulgaria
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Estonia
France
Georgia
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Israel
Italy
Latvia
Lithuania
Luxemburg
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Serbia
Slovenia
Slovakia
Spain
Switzerland
United Kingdom
European Tourism Forum 2013
Vilnius, 17/18-October-2013
Rural Tourism 2013
• total offer 360-450.000 units
• 20% “Agro”-tourism (working farms)
• < 20% “B&B style”, > 80% selfcatering
• 15% of bed capacity in Europe
IMPORTANT FOR
SUCCESS:
• Diversification of target markets
• Valorization of Rural Assets
• Visibility of Destination
European Tourism Forum 2013
Vilnius, 17/18-October-2013
… more than business:
• Multiplicator effect: 4 beds = 1 job
• Valorization of unused and “free” resources
• Makes heritage, nature, and tradition profitable and thus,
SUSTAINABLE
• Satisfies emotional needs
• Flexible and individual for many niche targets
• Gender: involves and depends mostly on women
• Differential income that allows basic services to survive
• Low entrance barrier makes participation easy
European Tourism Forum 2013
Vilnius, 17/18-October-2013
European Tourism Forum 2013
Vilnius, 17/18-October-2013
A Partner in The EU Family
Since 1991, EuroGites works on transnational / EU-wide products
•
only EU tourism segment with defined product criteria since 2005
•
Common Equipment and Quality Assessment criteria since 2005 (industry-based
initiative similar to HOTREC "HotelStars" ) including online
benchmarking http://quality.eurogites.org
•
Actively involved and participating in preparation of the actual European Tourism
Policy COM (2010) 352 and implementation plan
•
Brainstorming and specific proposals around the 50000 Tourists Initiative
•
Formal labelization / Brand as statutory task, work group constituted in 2012
•
Elaboration of common criteria and operative products on segments such as
–
ex-European markets in low seasons
–
Family holidays
–
Seniors (in course)
European Tourism Forum 2013
Vilnius, 17/18-October-2013
…that still has to grow up
•
Support to EU Tourism Policy since start (TSG - Tourism Sustainability Group)
•
Great hopes after the COM (2010)352 / 21 actions plan - we expected it to finally find
support to previous work and initiatives
•
Reality remains far from expectations - so far, few to none results that are feasible,
tangible, and useful for the reality.
•
Reasons? - we only can guess. Intentions were good, so why does it not happen in
reality?
How to improve? - some ideas:
–
Forum or advisory group of all tourism-related stakeholders to the Commission (--> follow
–
–
–
Ask stakeholders about how to implement policies (good example: recent Senior call)
Strict preference on really multi-transnational actions (involving 10 or more countries)
Promotion (via agreements with ETC, or direct on occasions such as 50000
Tourist workshops)
example of TSG)
European Tourism Forum 2013
Vilnius, 17/18-October-2013
European Tourism Forum 2013
Vilnius, 17/18-October-2013
Ačiū - Thank you !
for your attention
European Tourism Forum 2013
Vilnius, 17/18-October-2013