NECSTouR 2nd ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
29th / 30th JUNE 2010
BRUSSELS
EUROPEAN TOURISM POLICY
Throughout their whole mandate, the Spanish Presidency has considered Tourism policy as a priority.
In this respect, on the 14th and 15th April 2010 the European Tourism Stakeholders Conference and an informal Ministers meeting on tourism took place in Madrid. During the conference, NECSTouR was represented by its President, the Tuscany Region, and several NECSTouR Members participated to this event, such as Flanders, the German speaking community of Belgium, Cornwall, Catalunya, Cité de la Culture et du Tourisme Durable, ISNART...
A report summing up the outcomes of the different panels of the European Tourism Stakeholder Conference and the conclusions of the informal Ministerial meeting on tourism is available below:
Madrid documents:
Commissioner Antonio TAJANI speech
Panel 1: Innovation and competitiveness in tourism
Panel 2: Sustainable and Socially Responsible Tourism
Panel 3: Reinforcing the tourism Image of Europe
Declaration of Madrid
NECSTouR Documents:
Outcomes of the different panels and the declaration of the EU Member States
NECSTouR is contributing to shape the new European tourism policy
According to article 195 of the newly adopted Lisbon Treaty, as far as regards tourism, the European Union is given competences "to carry out actions to support, coordinate or supplement the actions of the Member States".
In order to produce a communication on a new framework for a renewed European tourism policy, the Commission has launched a public consultation (closed on March 3rd) to collect views from all interested parties and stakeholders, including regions.
NECSTouR has contributed to this consultation with the help of the members on the basis of its goals and strategy, mainly underlining the role of regions and territories for a competitive and sustainable tourism in Europe.
Discussion document: A new framework for the tourism policy in the EU. A response from NECSTouR network
OFFICIALY ASBL
NECSTouR has been a hub of different activities in 2009: it has been decided to consolidate the network by creating a no-profit organization, open to further adhesions, with a stable secretariat, to develop mutual learning platforms (such as the best practice detabase), two networks' conferences have been organized in 2009, in Plymouth (UK) in June and in Florence (I) in November, work is in progress both on the issue of sustainability indicators and on the thematic issues (via 5 working groups)
NECSTouR has become a legal associationThe Brussels-based ASBL (association sans but lucratif) registration process has been completed, consequently, the official creation of NECSTouR has been announced during the South West Conference in June 2009. The network is now reinforced by a stronger legal framework. All the signatories of the Memorandum of Understanding, which are eligible for participating according to the NECSTOUR association statute, have been invited to officially join the NECSTOUR no profit association (for more info see the 'join us' section above).
Working Groups working!
Working Groups sessions will take place at the June conference in South West. For the occasion a common methodology is proposed:
- The Action Plans will be used as starting points, so that each group will decide on focussing primarily on one action that members will be able to develop on a voluntary basis.
- At the same time, WGs will also look at actions from the Action plans that could be developed through possible EC funding opportunities.
- The persons responsible for the different tasks will be identified to ensure effectiveness and sustainability of theactions.
The latest working group documents are below.
Sustainability Indicators
Debate is open within the network on the issue of indicators. During Plymouth conference each WG has work, among other things, on specific ‘'sustainable indicators''.Exchange of info is active with the TSG group. Updates on the work on tourism sustainability indicators have been presented in Florence on the 6th of November 2009, during the VII Euromeeting conference. The final document "Indicator System for 'sustainable tourism destinations'" can be downloaded below.
EC Tourism Unit Call for proposals
Following the Commission Call for Proposals ‘'Networks for the competitiveness and sustainability of European Tourism" which has been published in January 2009 by the Commission (DG enterprise, Unit Tourism), the Executive committee agreed to respond to this call to support some of the NECSTouR activities. The outcome was the presentation of the "SMART" project proposal. For more information please contact the secretariat.
PAST EVENTS:
The 4th NECSTouR Conference has taken place in South West England (UK) on June 17-19 June, in the University of Plymouth.
The 5th NECSTouR conference has taken place in Florence (I) on November 5th and 6th.
ALL THE DOCUMENTS ARE AVAILABLE in the 'Events' section
Below are the latest documents produced by the working groups (outcome of Plymouth conference)
