The updated EU Industrial Strategy highlights the need to accelerate the green and digital transition of EU industry and its ecosystems. To that end, it proposes working together with industry, public authorities, social partners and other stakeholders to design and implement transition pathways for each ecosystem.
Tourism, as the most heavily hit ecosystem by the COVID-19- crisis, will be the first to have its transition pathway. The actions of this pathway will form the key elements of the upcoming European tourism agenda 2030/2050.
The sections below describe the various steps in the tourism transition pathway co-creation and co-implementation with contributions by public and private stakeholders across sectors and levels in the tourism ecosystem.
We invite all EU tourism stakeholders to submit their concrete pledge for action. We will publish the pledges, recognising stakeholders' contribution to and leadership in the transition of EU tourism.
To initiate the co-creation process, the Commission prepared a staff working document in June 2021 outlining possible scenarios for a transition pathway towards a more resilient, sustainable and innovative tourism ecosystem.
This document invites stakeholders to reflect and contribute to the scenarios for 2030 and lists key enablers for the transition of the tourism ecosystem. It invites stakeholders to work together and proposes concrete actions, commitments and investments at sectoral, national and regional levels of the tourism ecosystem. It also asks stakeholders to assess the scale, cost, benefits and conditions of the required actions for the twin transition of European tourism.
To gather the contributions from the tourism ecosystem’s actors, the European Commission launched a targeted online stakeholder consultation over the summer of 2021.
Almost 200 respondents sent their views via the dedicated survey. The responses were essential to identify the tourism transition pathway’s key areas and topics of focus. See a summary of the survey analysis below.
During October 2021, 115 stakeholders participated in a series of workshops organised by the independent experts working on behalf of European Commission. There were three groups of workshops focusing on green transition, digital transition and resilience of the tourism ecosystem.
In the first week of October, there were four workshops per category.
Green transition of the tourism ecosystem
- carbon-neutral mobility
- circular tourism
- sustainable consumption
- sustainability knowledge
Digital transition of the tourism ecosystem
- data analytics and real-time experience management
- digital never-ending tourism and virtual experiences
- technology-empowered destinations and transforming value co-creation
- digital empowerment and knowledge of tourism providers and consumers
Resilience of the tourism ecosystem
- destination governance for supporting well-being for all
- adaptive capacity for a changing world of tourism
- supporting equity, accessibility and social impacts of tourism
- improving skills and ensuring quality of work in tourism
Concluding workshops (one per key dimension) were organised during the third week of October 2021 to formulate concrete actions and targets for the tourism transition pathway.
See experts’ workshop report below.
See the final stakeholders consultation report below.
An informal ministerial meeting took place online on 16 November 2021. It was followed by the European Tourism Forum on 17 November 2021.
During these events, EU countries and participants discussed how the tourism transition pathway could be used as a basis for the EU agenda for tourism.
The transition pathway for tourism was published on 4 February 2022.
The final report identifies 27 areas of measures for the green and digital transition and improving the resilience of EU tourism. The report draws together elements from over 30 meetings and workshops with stakeholders and structures them based on the transition pathway building blocks developed by the Industrial Forum Task Force 2.
See the transition pathway for tourism
As part of the co-implementation process, we encourage, collect, promote and support public and private tourism stakeholder commitments to ambitious targets through concrete actions to move towards the green and digital transition of the tourism ecosystem.
The European Commission published a call for commitments for tourism stakeholders in February 2022. We have received and published several sets of pledges and commitments from stakeholders. On 30 January 2024, we published the first stock-taking exercise to examine 2 years of progress. This also established a progress assessment approach.
The call for commitments will remain open during the entire implementation of the Tourism Transition Pathway. We will publish new batches of pledges and commitments 2-3 times a year.
On 1 December 2022, the Council of the European Union adopted the EU Agenda for Tourism 2030.
The agenda is based on the Commission’s transition pathway for tourism and includes a multi-annual work plan with actions to be taken by the EU countries, the Commission and tourism stakeholders. It covers five priority areas: green transition, digital transition, resilience and inclusion, skills and support, and the enabling policy framework and governance. Each priority defines several actions, such as diversifying tourism services across seasons and locations, reducing environmental footprint, and supporting the accessibility of tourism.
See our dedicated page for previous events about the transition pathway.
You can find presentations and livestream recordings of the 2-year anniversary, Together for EU Tourism stakeholders' meetings, along with European Tourism Day and the European Tourism Forum.