Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
US conflict over the extent of subsidies to Airbus
and Boeing (Aboulifia, 2005), as well as
approaches towards the management of climate
change (Egenhofer, 2005). Indeed, the devel-
opment of an open transatlantic aviation market
is often seen as a policy failure because of the
extent to which authority for external aviation
policy has been contested in the EU between
the Commission and member states (European
Commission, 2004). The DG External Relations
of the European Commission itself observes
that difficulties in developing a liberal aviation
market
highlights how liberalisation usually creates
losers as well as winners and how likely losers
will oppose it. Such opposition is particularly
powerful when legislative changes are required
to liberalise markets. . . intra-EU cooperation
can be difficult and the Commission cannot
always deliver the member states.
(European Commission, 2004, p. 30)
Clearly, the situation is only likely to become
more problematic given the accession of ten new
members to the EU, each with their own series of
intergovernmental aviation agreements.
The EU also has substantial international
development programmes that affect tourism
in a number of ways, indirectly through infra-
structure development programmes (e.g. trans-
port) and conservation assistance (Morgera
and Durán, 2004) and directly through aid for
tourism-specific projects (e.g. funding for the
South Pacific Tourism Organization). EU devel-
opment non-government organizations (NGOs)
believe that enlargement of the EU is occurring
simultaneously with the subordination of develop-
ment to a narrow foreign policy agenda focused
on security and migration issues (Press, 2003).
As Press (p. 1) observes:
Negotiations for membership to date have
focused almost completely on trade and the
compliance of the accession countries' political
and public institutions with those of the EU.
Until very recently there has been little
attention to development co-operation yet this
is a crucial activity of the EU in the context of
its broader external relations agenda.
Implications for development policy may
therefore be substantial given that the accession
countries may be more interested in continuing
to receive transfers of funds that had been avail-
able to them previously under aid programmes,
while development aid and cooperation policies
have historically also received a low priority.
Indeed, Press (2003, p. 5) concludes: 'Enlarge-
ment in the short-term will have an adverse
affect on the quantity and quality of EU aid
programmes and funding opportunities'.
Conclusions
As noted at the outset, it is difficult to describe
the potential wider implications of accession on
tourism in the broader international sphere with
any clarity. Arguably, the general difficulties in
policy and budgetary decision-making that
affected the EU in 2005 were likely to be a fore-
taste of some of the decision-making issues con-
fronting the enlarged EU. Although such issues
are not tourism-specific, they will affect tourism-
related policies not only in the EU, but also
internationally and particularly with respect to
border controls, international trade agreements
and aid programmes. Such a situation will not
diminish the potential international role of the
EU although it will make policy direction more
confusing from an external perspective.
Indeed, a central theme of this chapter has
been that specific EU policies for tourism are
likely to be of far less significance for interna-
tional tourism flows and tourism development
than understanding the policies that affect tour-
ism, arguably something that the small tourism
policy community in either the EU or interna-
tionally often fails to recognize. Instead, the atti-
tudes of the accession countries and of the EU
itself towards trade in services, including avia-
tion and transport, are likely to be as significant
for international tourism trade and tourism
policy as the CAP is for national agricultural
policies. In addition, the EU attitude toward envi-
ronmental agreements, including the Kyoto pro-
tocol, is also likely to have significant long-term
impacts on international travel flows because of
their potential affects on the cost of travel.
In both the immediate and longer term,
therefore, EU enlargement will have implications
for tourism beyond the EU borders in the same
way that previous enlargements have also had
implications in terms of changes in travel flows,
investment patterns and inter-sectoral effects
both inside and outside of tourism. The relative
