• Over 60 European organisations call for tourism to be firmly anchored in EU national Recovery and Resilience plans.
• European Tourism Manifesto alliance presents list of reforms and investment ideas to support tourism and make EU economies more resilient.
• New #Tourism4Recovery campaign launched to support the call and showcase impact of investments in sustainable tourism.

The European Tourism Manifesto alliance, which represents over 60 European travel & tourism stakeholders covering the whole value chain of travel operations across Europe, has called on European governments to include tourism as a strategic part of their national Recovery and Resilience plans. The Call for Action: Accelerate Social and Economic Recovery by Investing in Sustainable Tourism Development paper recently published by the alliance emphasises that the new Recovery and Resilience Facility agreed by the EU institutions to help rebuild the bloc’s economy offers an unprecedented opportunity to reset travel in Europe and build a more sustainable, resilient and innovative tourism sector.

To assist EU governments in drafting their national recovery plans, the paper presents a non-exhaustive list of reforms and investment ideas to drive digital and green transitions of travel & tourism and wider EU economies. Examples of some of the investment proposals included in the paper relate to the greening of tourism destination infrastructure; the development of clean fuels for transportation and investment in multimodal transport solutions; investments in tourism marketing and promotion to kick-start recovery; a fast rollout of rapid broadband services to rural, coastal and mountainous areas and the acceleration of fibre and 5G networks for travellers; and support to digital skills training for tourism workers.

To support the alliance’s call to action, a new #Tourism4Recovery campaign was launched with the goal of raising awareness of the devastating impact of the COVID-19 crisis on European tourism and showcasing how investment in sustainable tourism can be a key driver for the EU’s recovery.

Read full press release #TOURISM4RECOVERY: Travel & tourism stakeholders urge investment in sustainable tourism as part of EU recovery at tourismmanifesto.eu

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