'ETAG'

Established in 1981 on the initiative of ETC, ETAG is a group of European and international
organisations which represent the tourism industry sectors in Europe. The group works principally
with the institutions of the European Union, co-operating with both the European Commission and
the European Parliament. It is also an affiliate member of the World Tourism Organisation.

Activities during 2004

European Tourism Industry Network

ETAG members met three times in Brussels to develop and

Bill Richards, the ETAG Secretary,

oversee their activities for that year.

continued as the co-ordinator of the

European Tourism Industry Network (ETIN).

EU project steering groups

This e-mail-based network was created to

ETAG members participated in the steering group for the

satisfy the EC's and European Parliament's

organisation of the EU's European Tourism Forum which was held

wish to have one principal discussion

in Budapest on 15th and 16th October 2004, and several

partner on tourism policy issues.

members took part in the event itself.

Most of the European and international

Bill Richards

organisations involved in tourism

ETAG was also represented on a number of project steering

are participants in it.

groups set up by the European Commission's Tourism Unit. These

groups were responsible for advising on the following projects:

During the year, Mr Richards gave presentations on ETIN to the

Employers' Group and the Trade Union Group of the EU's

· A study looking at networking and partnership in the

Economic and Social Committee (ECOSOC). ETIN also published

tourism industry;

a brochure setting out its aims and objectives, and copies of this

· A handbook on creating tourism learning areas in the European

can be obtained from Bill Richards at richards@btconnect.com.

Union; and

Changes at the top

· Research into sustainable transport and tourism in Europe

At the end of 2004, the ETAG Chairman,

(the MuSTT study).

Urbain Claeys of Toerisme Vlaanderen,

retired after six years in office. He was

Raising the profile of tourism and its businesses

succeeded by Jaakko Lehtonen, Chief

This remains a top priority for the group.

Executive of the Finnish Tourist Board.

All ETAG members wish to express their

A particular concern has been to achieve industry representation

thanks to Mr Claeys for his hard work

on the EU's Tourism Advisory Committee. This committee, run by the

and commitment to the group, and look

European Commission (EC), oversees the development of European

Jaakko Lehtonen

forward to working with Mr Lehtonen

tourism policy, but manages to do so without the involvement of the

in the years ahead.

operating sector. Membership is restricted to national government

officials. Sadly, however, ETAG's representations on this to the EC's

Tourism Unit have fallen on deaf ears so far.

ETAG's main objectives are to:

· encourage effective technical liaison and co-operation

The group is also urging the EC and the European Parliament to set up

between governments, national tourism agencies and the

a crisis management system which will provide co-ordinated EU-wide

tourism-operating interests in the public and private sectors;

support for tourism businesses at times of crisis and disaster (such as

· promote the development of Europe's tourism;

terrorist attacks or epidemics like the outbreak of SARS in 2003).

· help remove the constraints on the growth of travel

Looking beyond tourism policy work, ETAG responded to the EC's

and tourism.

consultation on the proposed Directive on the Internal Market

ETC retains close links with ETAG and is responsible for the

for Services.

appointment of one of its members, usually an NTO chief

executive, as chairman. The current ETAG chairman is Jaakko

Lehtonen, Chief Executive of the Finnish Tourist Board.

More information can be found on the ETAG website at

www.etag-euro.org