Tourism Innovation Summit 2022 in Seville, Spain focused the debate of its second day on the main challenges facing European tourism to continue growing in a sustainable and sustained manner over time. Representatives of the European Parliament, Finland, Italy, France and Spain identified the main challenges facing European destinations.
István Ujhelyi, vice-president of the European Parliament’s committee on transport and tourism, said, “We must have good agreements with tour operators, and the European Union must promote tourism in Europe in general, not just in Spain, Italy or Finland.”
This view was shared by other experts, such as Morena Diazzi, director general for knowledge, research, employment and enterprise of the Emilia Romagna region (Italy), who urged collaboration beyond the territory to promote tourism and bring about a stronger recovery. “Europe needs to invest more in collaborative promotion. We are different and very attractive destinations, and it is important to have a policy from the European Commission that reaches out to national governments, regions and territories.”
Ujhelyi began his speech by saying,” Tourism is the industry of peace. Progress and tourism are built in times of peace.” This message clearly alluded to the geopolitical situation in Europe, which is affecting tourist destinations at different levels. In this sense, Kristiina Hietasaari, senior director of Visit Finland - Business Finland, said: “Our largest tourism market is Russia, and the current situation is impacting our tourism industry significantly, which in turn is having repercussions in other areas.” According to Hietasaari, this situation has caused the country’s tourism industry to turn its attention to Europe, with an “incredible growth in tourists from destinations such as France and the Netherlands”. She added that “the stronger we are in Europe, the more sustainable our industry will be in the future”.
Felipe Formariz, general director of strategy and services for the tourism sector at Turespaña, pointed out that the main challenge for the Spanish market to be more resilient is to build an equitable portfolio among the country’s regions. “Some regions are dependent on tourism from the U.K., and suffered with Brexit; others are dependent on the Russian market, and are suffering now; Madrid and Barcelona have not yet fully recovered from the impact of the COVID pandemic because of their dependence on Asian tourism. That is why we must balance their portfolio so that these events do not create a crisis for the sector.”
And as the tourism industry faces the reduction of tourists from Russia, experts also emphasized the need to prepare for and welcome tourists from China, as the country’s borders are about to open in the wake of the pandemic. “We need the opening of China’s borders, but this will mean a flood of Chinese citizens wanting to travel. And this is good economically, we need it, but we need to look beyond that and manage it so that it is also sustainable,” said Ujhelyi. Another challenge of China’s future openness is culture. “It is important to understand that the Chinese market has a different culture, and we must adapt our offer to make it accessible. But we must also work on introducing Chinese tourists who visit us to our culture,” he concluded.
Formariz said, “The closure of the Chinese borders has meant new opportunities to bring Spain closer to other destinations, such as the American one, with which we also have close cultural ties in the case of Latin America.” He assured that the Spanish industry has “consequently created new products adapted to these new tourists, increased the connections between Spain and different destinations in America, and recovered the interest of tourists in Spain”.
Tourism Innovation Summit is an international forum for innovation, trends and reflection for the tourism sector that offers managers and companies in the sector the latest technological solutions and products to improve their competitiveness. For three days, technology and innovation are combined with entrepreneurship, new business models, services and products for the tourism sector.
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