CONCERTOUR · CONCERTED INNOVATIVE APPROACHES, STRATEGIES, SOLUTIONS AND SERVICES IMPROVING MOBILITY AND EUROPEAN TOURISM

Tourism sector is a key driver of economic growth and employment and has a fundamental role in matching the Lisbon Strategy objectives: making the EU more competitive and dynamic economy.The recent communication ""A renewed European Union Tourism Policy:Towards a stronger partnership for European Tourism"" introduces the strategy to be pursued for better exploit growth and employment potentials of the tourism sector in a sustainable way.It also refers how the stakeholders can be involved in the EC actions.CONCERTOUR is an Horizontal Activity(Support Action)aiming at creating synergies between transport research and tourism services in Europe,improving competitiveness,encouraging co-modality,focusing on the subject regardless of the involved DG Programme.The overall objective is to propose new concepts guiding tourists through ""the stages of whole travel itinerary"" and to support EU policies in improving tourism competitiveness,considering emerging needs and tourism demand by acting on main aspects affecting tourism market (e.g.intermodality,information,ticketing).In CONCERTOUR tourism market and transport supply are considered as integrated environment,starting from the assumption that the local community is key to successful tourism destination as they are guardians of the local resources and provide the service for paying guests. The project will identify policy driven solutions to remove barriers,creating the conditions for value added transport services provision(e.g.institutions/instruments facilitating co-ordination between governmental departments in the planning phase,tourism travel plans,pricing policies and technical standardisation).The project focuses on transport as lever/opportunity and not as barrier to sustainable development and competitiveness,taking in consideration relevant key factors such as:improvement of socio-economic benefits,sites attractiveness,reduction of adverse environmental/social impacts,guarantee fair/equal access to tourism for all""