THE POLICY
DEPARTMENT
We provide Committees of the
European Parliament in the area of
Structural & Cohesion Policies with a
dedicated research service.
As a Policy Department we do our own
research but also contract external
experts to deliver studies and briefings
for the Committees.
You can find our blog here:
https://research4committees.blog/
Follow @PolicyTRAN
STUDY
DETAILS
STUDY
in a nutshell
AUTHORS DIRECTORATE-GENERAL FOR INTERNAL POLICIES
Institute of Transport and Tourism, University of Central POLICY DEPARTMENT
Lancashire: Richard Weston, Alex Grebenar, Mary Lawler STRUCTURAL AND COHESION POLICIES
ECOTRANS: Herbert Hamele, Gordon Sillence, Martin Balas,
Richard Denman, Antonio Pezzano, Karl Reiner
European Tourism
labelling
The full study is available here:
http://bit.ly/617-461
L009141
IP/B/TRAN/IC/2017-007
Possible introduction of an EU
PE 617.461 March 2018
standard(s) for tourism services and
the potential for the establishment
of a single European tourism label
A study commissioned by the
Committee on Transport and Tourism
 MAIN
ABSTRACT FOCUS ON
CONCLUSIONS

• The European Commission (EC) could
establish aworking group with leading
quality and sustainability
schemes/labels and stakeholders in the
EU.
• The EC should enter negotiations with
the Global Sustainable Tourism Council
(GSTC) to establish a joint initiative to
promote GSTC recognition of standards
with European added-value.
• The European Parliament (EP) and EC
should encourage national tourism
agencies and industry bodies to work
together to strengthen and coordinate
existing tourism quality labels in the EU.
• Provide a promotional platform and a
programme of on-going networking
and support for quality and
sustainability certification schemes and
labels.
• Promote local-level initiatives, such as
campaigns promoting quality and
sustainability labelling and supporting
businesses in gaining certification.
• EU institutions should require
contracting of certified tourism
businesses in EU procurement and
project funding.
The purpose of labelling in the tourism
sector is to improve signalling, reduce
transaction costs, achieve coordination of
participants’ actions and avoid free riding
opportunities generated by the
incompleteness of the information.
There is concern that the current volume
and variety of labels has become a barrier
to consumer choice. This situation may
lead to lost opportunities to improve the
competitiveness of the European tourism
industry.
European intervention is broadly
welcomed but requires sensitive handling
and should be directed towards
providing support and coordination, as
well as reliable and equivalent standards,
rather than a new European tourism label.
This study focuses on the current
situation in the European Union
regarding quality and sustainability
labelling in tourism.
The study analyses the possibility of the
introduction of an EU standard(s) for
tourism services through the initiation
of a harmonised EU certification system
and the potential for the establishment
of a single European tourism label.
Comments on this study are welcome at:
poldep-cohesion@europarl.europa.eu
If you wish to subscribe or unsubscribe
to our mailing list, please contact us at
the above address mentioning which
committee area is of interest:
AGRI
CULT
PECH
REGI
TRAN

Source: Apih (2017)

The full study is available here:
http://bit.ly/617-461