EU tourism ministers call for a specific budget for this activity

02-11-23

Achieving that the European Union has a specific tourism budget is the main objective of the informal meeting of tourism ministers of the European Union to be held this Tuesday at the Palau de Congressos de Palma, organized by the Spanish presidency of the Council of the EU. A commitment that will be reflected in the Declaration of Palma on tourism and sustainability that is expected to be approved at the end of the meeting.

Under the slogan The path towards the social sustainability of Tourism in the EU, the Secretary of State for Tourism, Rosana Murillo, is chairing the meeting in the absence of the Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Héctor Gómez, who has traveled to Madrid to attend the swearing in of Princess Leonor. According to Morillo: "The commitment and objective of this informal meeting is for the European Union to have a specific tourism budget and to relaunch the common tourism policies of all the member states".

Tourism ministers discuss measures to promote more sustainable and resilient tourism in member states, and what the European Union can do within its competences. The Secretary of State for Tourism said: "We want to put tourism at the center of the European Union's policies and make it more sustainable with a better coexistence between tourists and residents so that it has a positive impact on society". The social sustainability of tourism also passes, according to Morillo, "by the quality of employment, better training and better training of the staff of the worker and also increase the participation of the sector".

Morillo has responded to the criticism received for not including civil society in the tourism meetings organized in Palma: "It is a meeting of ministers in the framework of the Spanish presidency of the Council of the EU, but we are in permanent contact with civil society. Yesterday (Monday), without going any further, I met with a representative of the Forum de la Societat Civil".