President of the European Travel Commission Arthur Oberascher and Commissioner Gunter Verheugen, Vice-President of the European Commission, met for talks at the European Tourism Forum in Portugal; these were the first top-level contacts between the two organisations.

Co-operation between ETC and the Commission’s Enterprise and Industry Directorate General was a principal focus of the discussions. Targeted as promising areas of collaboration were promotional activities in overseas markets, particularly in Asia, destination marketing know-how, and research. Oberascher and Verheugen agreed to explore possibilities for joint projects and to meet again early next year.

This agreement follows on the EC’s new Communication on tourism that spells out its intention to “reinforce the image and perception of Europe as a tourist destination and work with the European Travel Commission to devise a proper strategy”.

Oberascher updated Vice-President Verheugen on European Travel Commission activities to promote Europe as a tourist destination around the world, including operation of the visiteurope.com portal whose development the Commission financed. He described ETC as a network for the exchange of best practice between national tourism organisations in areas such as branding, market intelligence and use of new media. The EU Vice-President expressed appreciation for the ETC’s efforts, saying “we stand behind you”.

The ETC President participated in the opening ceremony of this year’s European Tourism Forum organised by the European Commission and the Portuguese presidency of the EU in co-operation with industry stakeholders.

In his address, Oberascher hailed tourism as “Europe’s face to the world, the face of an attractive, appealing Europe”. The ETC President underlined the importance of tourism as a yardstick of the success of a service economy and a spearhead for growth, and called for tourism to be given the status and visibility it deserves.