Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
has been given in policy circles to the implica-
tions of EU enlargement. Focus is placed upon
potential impacts with respect to changes in
tourism flows, but, just as significantly, attention
is given to broader policy implications of en-
largement for cognate policy areas such as the
environment and development. This approach
is regarded as particularly important given the
lack of a clear EU policy with respect to tourism
although there exists a large number of policy
areas that, though not tourism specific, never-
theless have a substantial affect on tourism
(Hall, 2000).
CAP for international tourism lie in the extent to
which changes in international trade regimes
influence economic growth in affected nations
and therefore changes in personal consumption
that may then be used to purchase tourism ser-
vices. Similarly, EU accession may have further
longer-term implications for tourism in terms of
the growth of the Euro zone and therefore
future exchange rates that are a major determi-
nant in international travel flows, while an addi-
tional longer-term effect will be growth of the
new EU members as potential source markets
for both EU and non-EU destinations.
For students of tourism the unfortunate real-
ity is that, in general assessments of economic,
social and political implications of enlargement
for the EU, tourism does not usually figure as a
major, or even minor concern. This is even the
situation with respect to government reports
from existing EU members. For example, the
UK Department of Trade and Industry (2004)
failed to mention tourism or travel in terms of
trade and investment potential of EU enlarge-
ment. Arguably, such a situation is somewhat
surprising given the supposed importance of
tourism for national and regional economies and
for employment. Indeed, a survey conducted
by the Economist Intelligence Unit (2003) on
the business implications of EU enlargement,
tourism was regarded as the biggest winner in
terms of EU enlargement in the accession
countries although the sector was not seen in
such a favourable light for existing EU mem-
bers. Nevertheless, the implications of enlarge-
ment for tourism remained the concern of the
tourism policy community only and not other
policy areas.
Consideration of changed patterns of eco-
nomic development were central to the World
Travel and Tourism Council's (WTTC) (2004)
assessment of the implications of EU enlarge-
ment for tourism. According to the WTTC, the
ten new member states, combined, stand to gen-
erate an additional
€
46bn of travel and tourism
GDP and 3 million jobs by achieving average EU
results. Nevertheless, forecasts of such growth
will likely require shifts in both investment flows
and tourism mobility in order to be achieved.
Any such changes will occur both within the
enlarged EU as well as in the transfer of tourists
and capital from locations outside of the EU to
within the new EU.
Tourism and Enlargement: Trade
In terms of international trade much of the
attention given to EU enlargement both inside
and outside of the EU has been given to trade in
commodities rather than trade in services. For
example, in a speech to Doshisha University
in Japan, the leader of the EU delegation to
Japan, Bernhard Zepter argued that:
Japanese companies will benefit in the
enlarged EU from a single set of trade rules, a
single tariff, and a single set of administrative
procedures that will apply across the whole of
the Single Market. This will simplify dealings for
Japanese firms doing business with the EU. For
trade in industrial goods, the new Member
States will now adopt the Common Customs
Tariff. This means on average a significant
decrease in the tariffs applied. The average
weighted industrial tariffs of the acceding
countries decrease from around 9% on average
to the 3.6% average applied by the EU.
Japanese businesses will significantly benefit
from extensively lower tariffs in their trade with
new Member States as a result of enlargement.
(Zepter, 2004)
In addition to trade in manufactured goods,
in the United States and many other nations
with substantial agricultural sectors considerable
attention has also been given to implications
for agricultural trade, particularly the Common
Agricultural Policy (Kokubo, 2001; Crane, 2003).
Although the CAP may have some implications
for farm-based tourism because of the extent to
which farm tourism subsidies and grants could
be interpreted as a form of agricultural subsidy
(Hall, 2000), the longer-term implications of the
