On the 11^th July 2017 ECF was invited to the meeting of the European Parliament’s Committee on Transport and Tourism and a separate meeting with Antonio Tajani the President of the European Parliament.

The Commissioner for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, Elżbieta Bieńkowska, attended the Committee’s tourism task force meeting. She declared that the European Commission is working hard and has a lot of plans for transport and tourism. The vice-chair Istvan Ujhelyi explicitly asked for a new EU tourism strategy.  

He argued that tourism creates more jobs which would be good for the EU economy. Furthermore, infrastructure is important for a better tourism in the EU, especially in between member states.

The MEP, Michael Cramer, stressed that cycling tourism does not get enough financial support. In the EU 44 billion Euro economic impact are generated by cycling tourism and 39 billion per year on cruise tourism, which means we need to invest more in cycling tourism and EuroVelo routes. He said “We have great cycling paths and wonderful places in EU. We need to create more financial support for cycling tourism”.

The Commissioner Bieńkowska wrapped up the meeting with a positive note “to have fewer actions, but with a bigger impact that will create the added value”. She stressed the importance of cultural education and cultural tourism for the EU. Key tourism stakeholders should develop new skills, and also improve and create positive aspects of careers in tourism. She finished by stating “This year is the year of sustainable tourism. Let’s create better infrastructure and more cycling tourism”.

After the Committee meeting, the ECF Advocacy and EuroVelo Director Adam Bodor handed over the EU cycling strategy to the chair of the Committee on Transport and Tourism Karima Delli, and to the vice-chair Istvan Ujhelyi. Further discussion on the EU cycling strategy is coming up in the near future.

In the afternoon selected stakeholders of the tourism manifesto group (which was initiated by the European Travel Commission together with ECF) met Antonio Tajani, the president of the European Parliament. Adam Bodor, ECF director, presented him the importance of cycling tourism and the European Cycling Strategy and asked for his support to increase European investments in cycling.

Overall, the meetings were a success. The support of the EP will help us to achieve better conditions for cycling more people, cycling more often.