Malta to host EU tourism forum

Malta is to host its first European Union tourism forum, which will be organised by the Directorate General responsible for enterprise of the European Commission.

The forum, which will be held between October 19 and 21 at the Mediterranean Conference Centre in Valletta, will bring together top representatives from the tourism industry, civil society and authorities at all levels from the 25 member states of the EU. It will be addressed by the European Commissioner responsible for Enterprise Gunther Verheugen.

Commission sources told The Times the focus will be on competitiveness related to skills and ICT, better regulation, with an emphasis on the proposal of the Directive on Services, and sustainable development in the field of tourism. These themes will be covered in three parallel workshops. 

Parallel with the forum, an informal meeting of the European Ministers of Tourism will also take place in Valletta on October 20. Ministers will discuss the EU's proposed tourism policy and will have an exchange of views on tourism aspects related to national reform programmes. The meeting will be co-chaired by Maltese Tourism Minister Francis Zammit Dimech and his UK counterpart Minister James Purnell.

It is estimated that every year more than half of the world's 700 million international travellers visit Europe. The tourism sector generates more than five per cent of the EU's GDP in some two million enterprises, most of which are SMEs. However, competitive pressures are increasing especially from new markets in Asia.

The forum was first organised in 2002 by the Commission's Enterprise Directorate General's Tourism Unit in Brussels. It has since been held on a yearly basis. Venice hosted delegates in 2003, while the forum in 2004 was held in Budapest.