EUROPEAN COMMISSION’S SUPPORT OF THE TOURISM SECTOR

The Commission aims to support Europe’s tourism sector by:

1. Ensuring liquidity for tourism businesses, in particular SMEs, through

• Flexibility under State aid rules allowing Member States to introduce schemes, such as guarantee schemes for vouchers and further liquidity schemes, to support companies in the transport and travel sectors and to ensure that reimbursement claims caused by the coronavirus pandemic are satisfied. The schemes for vouchers can be approved by the Commission very rapidly, upon notification by the Member State concerned.
• EU funding: EU continues providing immediate liquidity to businesses affected by the crisis through the Coronavirus Response Instrument Initiative, under shared management with Member States. In addition, the Commission has made available up to € 8 billion in financing for 100,000 small businesses hit by the crisis, with the European Investment  Fund.

2. Saving jobs with up to €100 billion in financial relief from the SURE programme: The SURE programme helps Member States cover the costs of national short-time work schemes and similar measures allowing companies to safeguard jobs. The Commission also supports partnerships between employment services, social partners and companies to facilitate reskilling, especially for seasonal workers.

3. Connecting citizens to local tourism offer, promoting local attractions and tourism and Europe as a safe tourist destination

The Commission will work with Member States to promote a patronage voucher system under which customers can support their favourite hotels or restaurants. The Commission will also promote pan-European communication campaigns featuring Europe as a number one tourist destination. 

To complement short-term measures, the Commission will continue to work with Member States to promote sustainable tourism in line with the European Green Deal and encourage a digital transformation of tourism services to offer more choice, better allocation of resources and new ways of managing travel and tourist flows.

The Commission will organise a European tourism convention with EU institutions, the industry, regions, cities and other stakeholders to jointly build the future of a sustainable, innovative and resilient European tourism ecosystem – the ‘European Agenda for Tourism 2050′.

Major impacted countries

1. Italy: In 2019, the tourism sector’s contribution to the Italian gross domestic product amounted to 237.8 billion euros, representing 13 per cent of the country’s GDP.
2. Spain: The tourism industry is the number one driver of growth in the country, contributing approximately 159 million euros per year and standing at over 16 per cent of GDP. Approximately 400,000 companies are active in the sector, which employs over 2.5 million people.
3. France: France's tourism industry has been severely affected.Tourism in France contributes around 80 billion euros to gross domestic product, 30% of which comes from international visitors and 70% from domestic tourism spending. The total contribution of travel and tourism represents 10% of GDP and supports 3 million jobs (10% of employment) in the country.
4. Portugal: It is estimated that the country’s hotel industry could lose around 800 million euros and 7.3 million overnight stays in the next three to four months due to cancellations. The tourism sector generates 16 billion euros in revenue for Portugal each year, supporting over 400,000 jobs directly and 16 per cent of the country’s GDP in 2018.
5. Malta: The tourism industry contributes over 2 billion euros to the Maltese economy and account for approximately 27 per cent of GDP.
6. Greece: The value of tourism to Greece is fundamental to the survival of its economy, representing almost 21 per cent of GDP and dwarfing the global average of just over 10 per cent. One in every five euros spent in the country last year came from travel and tourism, which is an industry worth almost 41 billion euros. The sector also accounts for almost 10 per cent of the workforce in a country of almost 11 million people.
7. Cyprus: Travel and tourism on the island is worth well over 2 billion euros and accounts for approximately 14 per cent of GDP.