Tourism policies in the European community member states

Abstract

This paper outlines the major findings of a recent survey of national tourism policies in each of the member states of the European Community. It was found that policy objectives tend to concentrate on attracting more higher-spending tourists, improvements in product quality and a reduction in seasonality. The most important instrument in the implementation of tourism policy is the National Tourist Organization (NTO). The paper summarizes the activities of the NTOs, distinguishing ‘dirigiste’ from ‘laissez faire’ approaches. NTOs are heavily dependent on government grants while the largest single element of NTO budgets is marketing and promotion. There is a trend towards making tourism programmes at least partly self-financing or financed separately from mainstream government activities. The securing of private sector finance to assist tourist development appears to be largely carried out at regional or local levels. Finally, successful tourism policies (measured in terms of visitor arrivals, receipts and trade balance) appear to be linked to there being a clear, coherent central government strategy for developing tourism, where government helps to finance directly or indirectly tourism investment; the central tourism budget is concentrated on a few key areas and tourism policy is clearly co-ordinated with other policies (especially those of transport, environment, culture and regional action).