Policies of the European Union on tourism industry

Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................3

Policies of European Union in the aviation industries:...................................................................3

Tourism industry in European countries:........................................................................................6

Competitiveness of tourism industry in the European countries:....................................................8

Vision Statement:.............................................................................................................................8

Four key elements to evaluate the best value of policy:..................................................................9

Conclusion:....................................................................................................................................10

References:....................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction:
This assignment is based on the decision making process of the European Union especially in the
aviation industry. The European Union provides freedom to all citizens to travel and work across
all the 28 European Union countries and this is the main advancement made by the European
Union. Before have an idea about the aviation industry, it is necessary to know which institutions
influences or take part in the decision making process. The European Parliament, European
Council, and the European Commission are involved in the European Union decision making
process and they are their roles are:

The European Parliament – This institution represents the interest of the European citizens and
the members are directly elected by the citizen.

The European Council – The council consists of the head of the Government or the State that
represents the interest of members.

The European Commission – This institution is determined to fulfil the interest of the European
Union as a whole (Dronkers and Vink, 2012).

The European Council does not exercise any legislative functions but it defines the general
political priorities and the direction. The European Parliament and the European Council adopts
the new laws proposed by the European Commission, and the members of the States and the
Commission further implement the laws.

Policies of European Union in the aviation industries:

In the past 20 years there has been revolutionary change in the aviation industry that would had
been impossible without the measures taken by the European Union. Earlier the aviation policies
were taken by the respective State governments and as a result it made difficult to make the
bilateral ties as the policies of the European countries were very rigid. When the European Union
became the leading face of the European Union countries, it tried its best to implement the best
policies in the aviation industry. The European Industry was very successful in making the

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liberalisation of the aviation industry in the Member States, and then the European Union
decided to pursue it further. The aspects upon which the European Union focused on the
competition rules, safety, traffic management, security, environment protection, airport capacity,
external relations and the passengers rights. In the further assignment, the focus will be on the
internal and external aviation policies made by European Union (Franchino, 2009).

In order to implement better agenda for the European Member countries, the European Union
initiated a ‘fitness checks’ exercise to assess various sectors of the aviation industries. The
fitness check was on the following issues:

 The market access

 Insurance requirements
 Computerised reservation system
 Assistance to passengers affected by the airlines insolvency
 Price transparency

Source: (Franchino, 2009)

The European Union liberalised the internal market and provided the aviation industry to
penetrate in the new developmental phase along with challenges and benefits. The European
Union transformed the aviation industry by providing the competitive conditions and securing
the highest safety level as well as the quality of service. The policies made by the European

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Union benefitted the consumers, airports, airlines and the suppliers that provided more activity in
the airports, new routes, and greater choices with low prices and an enhanced quality of service.
The liberalisation legislation gave benefits to the aviation industry without any type of regulatory
or administrative costs in the market.

The framework of the regulatory body in the aviation industry involves larger area but the
European Union decided to concentrate on the economic regulation so as to create an internal
market and use it as a tool to ensure that the consumers get full advantage of the internal market.
After conducting the fitness check, the European Union decided to concentrate on the air
services and hence, recognised three factors and they are:

Market access and fair competition - It incorporated the rules of leasing and the treatment of non
scheduled services, reduce the restrictions on traffic rights and the rules regarding the market
condition and distributing air transport services such as incorporating computerised reservation
system (van Vliet and Koster, 2011).

Providing protection of consumers regarding price transparency, protection of passengers in the

case of insolvency and provide price transparency.

Working conditions and employment – Measure the liberalisation and assure the market
developments.

Source: (Pisarek, 2009)

The first steps towards making the external aviation policies by the European Union has been
influenced by the 2002 judgement by the European court of justice that showed the infraction of

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the European Union laws regarding the European Union countries and the non European Union
counties. The external aviation policies made by the European Union consist of three pillars and
they are recognition of bilateral agreements, and conclusion of horizontal agreements,
preparation of comprehensive agreement with global partners and creation of the European
Common Aviation Area (ECAA). The external aviation transport was previously controlled by
the bilateralism and exist connection between the national civil aviation and the State. After
2004, the European Union Members of States started concluding new bilateral Air Services
Agreements (ASA) with the third countries. When an agreement is approved by the European
Union Member of States, the agreement is valid for all the Members of States as per the
Regulation No. 847 of the Council on the implementation and negotiation of Air Service
Agreements and the European Parliament between the third countries and the Member of States
(Blok, 2006). In 2006, the European Common Aviation Area (ECAA) came into act with the
Balkan countries and the European Union as the members so that the market functions could be
expanded by maintaining the traffic, security, and safety standards outside the territories of the
European Union; the countries located in the southern and eastern side of the European Union
also followed the same regulation. In order to conclude the comprehensive global agreement
with the leading powers of the world by keeping the main aims of the market regulatory
cooperation and opening in the aviation industry such as security, safety and the overall
environmental impact – “the first Open Skies agreement was signed by the European Union and
the United States of America in the year 2007” (Hofer and Dresner, 2010).

Tourism industry in European countries:

The tourism is the main economic sector in the European countries. This sector generates about 5
% of the gross domestic product in the European Union and around 18 million organisations
have employed 5.2 % of the labour force in the European countries. The tourism industry
includes various ranges of destinations and products in which many stakeholders are involved
both in the private and public organisations. The tourism industry is increasing expanding its
branches and it also needs the support of information technology and communication (ICTs). As
a result with the help of information technology and communication, the tourism industry has

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been changed into e- tourism market that is rapidly growing and has given 36 % sales in the
travel industry (Cortés-Jiménez et al. 2011). The policies in the aviation industry are made in
accordance with the tourism industry so that the passengers are able to reach their favourable
destination with less effort.

In the period of global financial crisis in the year 2008, that drastically affected the economical
condition of the world and showed the worst scenario in the growth, investment, and production
sectors. However, when each sector was directly or indirectly affected by the economical crisis,
the tourism industry performed better than its average performance than other countries in the
world.

Source: (M Okello, 2014)

As per the above given figure, it could be clearly said that the tourist arrival rate in the European
countries showed signs of recovery during the period of 2010. When the number of tourist arrival
in the country decreases the rate of tourism in the country gradually increases.

In order to maintain the flow of sales in the tourism industry the policy agenda should be
controlled in a proper manner. There are number of ways in which the policy agenda should be
maintained and they are providing the responsibility to the Brussels, the responsibility should be
given to the governments, or the responsibility of it administration should be in the hands of the
particular industry, or select a third party that would decide the regulation of the industry, or the
policy should be a mixture of all the previous theories, or allow the political party to undertake
the responsibility or the political view along with the vision of the citizen should determine the

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future of the tourism industry or finally in order to implement ideas in the industry one should
become an active stakeholder (Proença and Soukiazis, 2008). As per the above study, it could be
clearly stated that the responsibility of policy making should be in the hands of the European
Union. From the above data it is clear that after the European Union concentrated on the tourism
industry, the economic growth of the country has enhanced and the rate of gross domestic
product has also increased in this country.

Competitiveness of tourism industry in the European countries:

As per the latest report by the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness forecasted by the World
Economic Forum positioned the European countries in the top 5 countries in the effectiveness of
tourism industry and including the range of criteria such as safety, regulatory framework,
environmental sustainability, health, and various kinds of resources, infrastructure and prices.
The European Countries have gained the competitiveness as they has the ability to attract the
foreign direct investment and their innovative mode of presenting their destination places over
the time that helps to generate international tourist. As per the recent research “innovation in the
sense is a change that results at some point in improved performance” (Yamaura and
Thompson, 2014).

The European Union played a vital role in enhancing the tourism industry of the European
countries; the European Union stopped the previous governing system of the respective countries
that made the business or the economic cooperation very rigid. As the European Union entered
the scenario, it completely changed the policies and implemented such policies that would be
incorporated to all the 28 countries of the European Union. After implementation of the policies
the tourism industry of the European countries showed drastic development even in the times of
global economic crisis. The European Union loosen the aviation policies so that the citizens
could travel all across the European countries without many restrictions (M Okello, 2014).

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Vision Statement:
The vision statement is essential in the tourism industry as it provides clear ideas and the
performance of the industry. When a industry incorporates a vision statement, it should be able
to display the desired outcomes that the industry inspires, and provide a target picture in the
minds of the consumers. A vision of an industry could be six months or six years of range as it
has a wide concept (Hofer and Dresner, 2010).

Source: (Hofer and Dresner, 2010)

The vision statement is essential for every industry as it provides to identify what is the goal of
the industry and how will it stand in the market situation and how does it want to see itself in the
future times. The vision statement provides direction and shape to the industry and the customers
of the tourism sector would be able to identify the goals of the industry and relate with their
expectations from the industry.

Four key elements to evaluate the best value of policy:

The four key elements to evaluate the best value of policy that consists of compare, consult, and
compete and collaborate. The challenge means the fundamental that can be access for the
purpose of service and the difference the policy wants to make. The compare means to relate the
effectiveness of the policy with the policies of the competitors. The consult means to provide the

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assistance of the subordinates when there is problem in decision making or doubts in the minds.
The compete means to compete in the market fairly to ensure the effectiveness of the policy
(Cortés-Jiménez et al. 2011).

Conclusion:
From the above assignment it could be concluded that the European Union has paved the way for
the tourism industry in the European countries and enabled the aviation industry to help the
tourism industry by associating with its internal and external policies. The European Union is
having a vision upon which it implements its various strategies and policies and also applies the
four key elements to evaluate their effectiveness of policies (Yamaura and Thompson, 2014).

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References:
Blok, K. (2006). Renewable energy policies in the European Union. Energy Policy, 34(3),
pp.251-255.

Cortés-Jiménez, I., Pratt, S., Bregoli, I. and Cooper, C. (2011). The European Timeshare
Consumer in the Twenty-First Century. International Journal of Tourism Research, 14(2),
pp.153-164.

Dronkers, J. and Vink, M. (2012). Explaining access to citizenship in Europe: How citizenship
policies affect naturalization rates. European Union Politics, 13(3), pp.390-412.

Franchino, F. (2009). Perspectives on European Immigration Policies. European Union Politics,

10(3), pp.403-420.

Hofer, C. and Dresner, M. (2010). The United States-European Union Open Aviation Area: The
American Perspective. Journal of the Transportation Research Forum, 46(1).

M Okello, M. (2014). Economic Contribution, Challenges and Way Forward for Wildlife-Based
Tourism Industry in Eastern African Countries Moses M. Journal of Tourism & Hospitality,
03(01).

Pisarek, R. (2009). Air transport liberalisation in the European Union and its impact on
development of the civil aviation sector in Poland. Comparative Economic Research, 12(3).

Proença, S. and Soukiazis, E. (2008). Tourism as an economic growth factor: a case study for
Southern European countries. Tourism Economics, 14(4), pp.791-806.

van Vliet, O. and Koster, F. (2011). Europeanization and the political economy of active labour
market policies. European Union Politics, 12(2), pp.217-239.

Yamaura, K. and Thompson, A. (2014). Analysis of Tourism Demand Model Across European
Source Countries. Tourism Planning & Development, 12(2), pp.145-154.

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