Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
impacts of EU enlargement (Hall, Chapter 4);
and the educational and training implications
(Richards, Chapter 5). The regional overviews
aimed to contextualize the individual country
chapters further (Jordan, Chapter 6; Komppula
and colleagues, Chapter 12; Alipour and Hall,
Chapter 16; and Hall and Smith for Section 5).
Within this framework, individual country
authors were then asked to provide an overview
of contemporary developments in tourism in
their respective countries, emphasizing in parti-
cular the extent to which accession or aspira-
tions towards accession have been influential.
The remainder of this chapter therefore offers a
summary of some of the key issues raised, while
addressing issues relating to the future direction
of the EU, tourism, education, and research.
It is unfortunate that tourism is still accorded
such a relatively low priority in EU policy-
making and funding (as noted in Chapters 1, 2
and 4). The European Commission's Tourism
Unit (part of Directorate-General Enterprise)
aims to undertake projects in such fields as sus-
tainable tourism, networking, regulation and
skills development, but support is still woefully
inadequate. Personal attendance at one of the
Unit's annual European Tourism Forums dem-
onstrated only too clearly the vagaries of EU
tourism policy and research. It is therefore
unsurprising that many countries endeavour to
undertake their own policy-making, planning
and research for tourism independently of EU
frameworks. Indeed, it is clear from some of
the chapters in this topic (e.g. Chapter 3) that
many countries are starting to question their
involvement in the EU project at all (e.g. rejec-
tion of the Constitution, and fears about the
euro).
Nevertheless, it appears that change might
be forthcoming if the words of the EU Commis-
sioner for Enterprise and Industry are to be
believed. He stated that tourism had been iden-
tified as one of three key sectors where sustain-
able growth and job creation were anticipated:
countries) consider the benefits of EU accession
to far outweigh the disadvantages. As a sum-
mary, accession to the EU can create a number
of
important
benefits
for
countries.
These
include:
increased liberalization and competition
leading to greater productivity and growth;
●
employment creation and new opportuni-
ties for migrant workers;
●
harmonization of legislation;
●
increased business investment opportunities;
●
freedom of movement for EU citizens;
●
access to EU funds;
●
opportunities to join the euro and stabilize
currencies;
●
ongoing liberalization of civil aviation and
the consequent growth of the low-cost airline
sector;
●
ease of cross-border trading;
●
educational mobility, new skills develop-
ment and training programmes;
●
guidelines for nature and heritage conser-
vation;
●
rising standards of living and quality of life;
and
●
image enhancement.
●
Nevertheless, it should not be implied that
EU accession is some kind of panacea, or that
EU accession processes are necessarily the most
appropriate. Indeed, Smith (2000) has argued
that negotiation of 'framework agreements' for
the wider post-Cold War European order has
both exposed contradictions in the EU's perfor-
mance, and raised questions about its capacity
to shape the 'new Europe' in the face of conflict
in South-eastern Europe, social unrest in some
of its founding members, and rejection of its
proposed constitution (see also Graham and
Hart, 1999).
Most accession countries are aware that the
symbolic implications of EU accession are more
significant than economic or financial ones.
Regional aid from Brussels is notoriously
miserly. As
The Economist
(2004) has sug-
gested, 'it is what EU membership inspires -
political stability, economic openness, fiscal
rectitude - not what it provides that counts'.
However, access
can
be created for funds and
grants that can benefit tourism development,
but as noted in Chapter 1, funds are not specifi-
cally allocated for tourism, therefore countries
Tourism is a sector that needs more political
attention . . . Tourism has a huge potential in
Europe that is not fully exploited, in particular
after the EU enlargement.
(HOTREC, 2005)
It also seems to be the case overall that
most countries (especially the newer accession
