Since April 2023, I have the honour of chairing the Network of European Regions for Sustainable and Competitive Tourism (NECSTouR). Operating from Brussels, NECSTouR develops interregional projects and fosters interregional cooperation to enable sustainable tourism governance in Europe. It represents more than 70 organisations around Europe, connecting Regional Tourism Governance with European levels of government, EU financial instruments, academic organisations, and the private sector.
1. My vision for the new NECSTouR Presidency
We want to strengthen the role of regions in EU tourism policy, raising the profile of tourism on the European agenda, and maximising the benefits of NECSTouR membership in sustainable destination management. It is important to tackle the sector challenges and opportunities through multilevel tourism governance, such as how to retain the workforce in our sector, how to facilitate the creation of jobs that respond to customers’ needs and employees’ values, especially focusing on young generations, how to meet climate targets in tourism, and more.
Optimising the collaboration between ‘nations, regions and cities’, the EU and private enterprises is crucial to tackle European tourism’s governance fragmentation. By creating a coalition of the willing and bringing together public forces from different levels, the tourism transition pathway will become more effective in inspiring and sustaining the SMEs, professionals, volunteers, and all those who believe in tourism as one of the means to facilitate ‘Better Places to Live, Better Places to Visit’. This is the message I raised also during my meeting with EU Commissioner Breton on the occasion of the European Tourism Day 2023 organised in Brussels on 5 May. The tourism industry is responsible for 27 million jobs in Europe.
At NECSTouR we stress the importance of EU Tourism as a crucial driver for our society’s well-being and we believe regions play a crucial role in the development. Investing in sustainable tourism experiences is a positive means to help communities flourish, not just an end. But for that to happen, there needs to be a paradigm shift in tourism, moving away from just doing less harm and into the regenerative mindset of contributing through tourism to the well-being of communities, visitors, and entrepreneurs. Flanders’ leadership is determined to support and accelerate Climate Action in tourism through the network activities. Our Board of Directors meeting, which recently took place in Brussels, is committed to investing in it. Now it is time for action and we look for partnerships to make it possible: regions, partner networks, and the EU Institutions. Tourism can be part of the solution to address the challenges of climate change.
2. What opportunities the Flemish chairmanship of NECSTouR offers to Visit Flanders?
The Flemish chairmanship of NECSTouR offers opportunities to spread our Flemish vision ‘Travel to Tomorrow’ at the European and international levels. But also to explore opportunities for Flanders to collaborate with other European regions in EU projects. NECSTouR is our gate to the EU and an important catalyst to strengthen partnerships in Europe. Regions can play a key role in leading a ‘smart’ and sustainable approach and to manage places, and NECSTouR has the necessary experience to support us in this. In addition, NECSTouR’s ‘Tourism of Tomorrow lab’ offers personalised services to make better data-driven decisions. The aim of this lab is to create an ecosystem where tourism professionals and data experts can work together to develop projects, share knowledge and disseminate best practices in destination management.
3. What are NECSTouR’s next appointments?
The NECSTouR Annual General Meeting taking place on 6-7 June in Paris is the most important appointment for the network. It represents our flagship event of the year, gathering all the network members where they can benchmark, team up, network, and concretely learn through the valuable programme we are offering. This edition will include discussions such as the NECSTouR 2030 strategy, fund-raising plans, climate action, sustainability data, and collaborative governance. We will maximise the most of our time together, with a promise to capitalise on the best of NECSTouR collaborative knowledge and opportunities through our work programme 2023. On Tuesday, the 6th of May, our members’ day will take place focusing on the co-creation of the NECSTouR 2030 strategy On Wednesday, the 7th of May we will have a conference titled ‘Reset: a new Agenda for 2030 Tourism’, open to the public offering participants the opportunity to be inspired by good practices on innovative tourism governance models and the mobility strategies to achieve sustainable tourism goals.
