European Tourism Forum 2013 Vilnius, 17/18-October-2013 EuroGîtes European Federation of Rural Tourism From Competition to Co-operation Andy Woodward President, EuroGites

European Tourism Forum 2013 Vilnius, 17/18-October-2013 What is “EuroGites”? European Federation of representative provider organisations of Rural Tourism in geographical Europe. Entirely private trade / industry organisation. Active support to EU policies related with Tourism, Rural Development, and Environment organised services / total estimate 27 European countries covered

European Tourism Forum 2013 Vilnius, 17/18-October-2013 Member organisations from: Austria Belarus Belgium (Wallonie + Flanders) Bosnia-Herzegóvina Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Estonia France Georgia Germany Greece Hungary Israel Italy Latvia Lithuania Luxemburg Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Romania Serbia Slovenia Slovakia Spain Switzerland United Kingdom

European Tourism Forum 2013 Vilnius, 17/18-October-2013

European Tourism Forum 2013 Vilnius, 17/18-October-2013 Rural Tourism 2013 total offer units 20% “Agro”-tourism (working farms) 80% self- catering 15% of bed capacity in Europe IMPORTANT FOR SUCCESS: Diversification of target markets Valorization of Rural Assets Visibility of Destination

European Tourism Forum 2013 Vilnius, 17/18-October-2013 … more than business: Multiplicator effect: 4 beds = 1 job Valorization of unused and “free” resources Makes heritage, nature, and tradition profitable and thus, SUSTAINABLE Satisfies emotional needs Flexible and individual for many niche targets Gender: involves and depends mostly on women Differential income that allows basic services to survive Low entrance barrier makes participation easy

European Tourism Forum 2013 Vilnius, 17/18-October-2013

European Tourism Forum 2013 Vilnius, 17/18-October-2013 A Partner in The EU Family Since 1991, EuroGites works on transnational / EU-wide products only EU tourism segment with defined product criteria since 2005 Common Equipment and Quality Assessment criteria since 2005 (industry-based initiative similar to HOTREC "HotelStars" ) including online benchmarking Actively involved and participating in preparation of the actual European Tourism Policy COM (2010) 352 and implementation plan Brainstorming and specific proposals around the Tourists Initiative Formal labelization / Brand as statutory task, work group constituted in 2012 Elaboration of common criteria and operative products on segments such as –ex-European markets in low seasons –Family holidays –Seniors (in course)

European Tourism Forum 2013 Vilnius, 17/18-October-2013 …that still has to grow up Support to EU Tourism Policy since start (TSG - Tourism Sustainability Group) Great hopes after the COM (2010)352 / 21 actions plan - we expected it to finally find support to previous work and initiatives Reality remains far from expectations - so far, few to none results that are feasible, tangible, and useful for the reality. Reasons? - we only can guess. Intentions were good, so why does it not happen in reality? How to improve? - some ideas: –Forum or advisory group of all tourism-related stakeholders to the Commission (--> follow example of TSG) –Ask stakeholders about how to implement policies (good example: recent Senior call) –Strict preference on really multi-transnational actions (involving 10 or more countries) –Promotion (via agreements with ETC, or direct on occasions such as Tourist workshops)

European Tourism Forum 2013 Vilnius, 17/18-October-2013

European Tourism Forum 2013 Vilnius, 17/18-October-2013 How to contact us Office Adress EuroGîtes Apartado 2035 E – Almería WEB Contact Klaus Ehrlich – General Secretary Tfno

European Tourism Forum 2013 Vilnius, 17/18-October-2013 Ačiū - Thank you ! for your attention