PATHWAYS TO GROWTH

The European Travel Commission (ETC) and the European Commission (EC) recently hosted \”A Taste of Europe\” Conference 2013 in Beijing, China. Along with the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), \”A Taste of Europe\” is one of the three long-haul third market events organized by ETC in the framework of the \”Destination Europe 2020\” initiative funded by ETC and EC for sustaining Europe\’s position as the world\’s number one tourist destination.
Close to 200 delegates representing Chinese and European tour operators, travel agencies, national tourism organizations, airlines and others attended the event.
Eduardo Santander, executive director of ETC, observed: \”We want to highlight the great importance that China has for Europe. The European public and private sectors are committed to work together with the Chinese tourism industry to develop products that meet the real expectations of Chinese travellers.\”
Pedro Ortun, director for service industries in the Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry in the European Commission, further emphasized the importance of the Chinese market for the European tourism industry, as \”not only the origin of growing number of visitors of EU destinations, but also a potential cooperation partner in international tourism development actions, for the benefit of both the EU tourism industry and the Chinese economy.\”
And he went on to say that it\’s the intention of the European Commission to further strengthen its ties with the Chinese authorities and operators and improve collaboration in the area of tourism policy actions between China and the EU.
For more, go to http://www.etc-corporate.org .