Improving the profile of the European tourist destinations through the European tourism indicators system

• Author: Cismaru L., Ispas A.
• Pages: 87-94

Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov

Series V: Economic Sciences • Vol. 8 (57) No. 1 - 2015

Improving the profile of the European tourist

destinations through the European tourism

indicators system

Laura CISMARU1, Ana ISPAS2

Abstract: Within the most recent European Policy for Tourism, the competitiveness of the

European tourism industry is directly linked to the image of Europe and to its perception, as

a collection of sustainable and high-quality tourist destinations. In such context, improving

the profile of the European tourist destinations has become a main target. During the last

years, the European Commission focused on the sustainable development of tourist

destinations. Several projects were developed, the most recent one introducing a practical

tool - the European Tourism Indicators System (ETIS) for the sustainable development of

destinations. The present paper advances the idea that such tool can be successfully used in

order to achieve the goal of improving the profile of the European tourist destinations.

Key-words: sustainable development, tourist destination competitiveness, EU Tourism

Policy, ETIS Project.

1. Introduction

All EU Policies for tourism address the sustainability issue in the most responsible

way, as being a matter of key importance in this field. According to the most recent

Tourism Policy adopted by the European Commission in 2010, the main

differentiation trait of the European tourist destinations has to be their sustainable

way to develop (COM 2010, 5). Various instruments were created during the last

years at EU level in order to support the responsible management of tourism

businesses, such as the EU Eco-label or the Community eco management and audit

scheme (EMAS), but, unfortunately, the response and efforts from tourism

businesses across Europe were very different in this direction. Maybe because of

this lack of congruence, during the last years, the EU Commission focused on the

sustainable development of tourist destinations.

1 Transilvania University of Braşov, laura.cismaru@unitbv.ro

2 Transilvania University of Braşov, ispasana@unitbv.ro