III workshop - europe, the best destination for seniors

1. EUROPEAN COMMISSION
ENTERPRISE AND INDUSTRY DIRECTORATE-GENERAL
Service Industries
Director
Commission européenne/Europese Commissie, 1049 Bruxelles/Brussel, BELGIQUE/BELGIË - Tel. +32 22991111
Of f ice: B100 04/38 - Tel. direct line +32 229-69727 - Fax +32 229-98034
oscar.almendros-bonis@ec.europa.eu
Brussels, 27 October 2014
ENTR /E1
Subject: III WORKSHOP
“EUROPE, THE BEST DESTINATION FOR SENIORS”
DRAFT MINUTES
Brussels, 15 October 2014
1. Participants
a) European Commission
- Pedro Ortún Director of Service Industries – DG ENTR
- Francesca Tudini HoU, Tourism Policy Unit E1 – DG ENTR
- Alain Libéros DHoU, Tourism Policy Unit E1 – DG ENTR
- Óscar Almendros Policy Officer, Tourism Policy Unit – DG ENTR
- Antonella Correra Policy Officer, Tourism and Cultural Instruments –
DG ENTR/E2
b) Participants (list attached in Annex I)
2. Opening session
Mr Pedro Ortún chaired the meeting. He opened the session by thanking the experts for
their inputs to the draft Report “Facilitating Cooperation Mechanisms to Increase Senior
Tourists’ Travels, within Europe and from Third Countries, in the Low and Medium
Seasons” as well as to the draft Action Plan.
He reminded that DG ENTR was facing a transition period to prepare the in-coming new
European Commission´s (EC) notably providing input to further support the tourism
sector at EU level.
Mr. Ortún referred to the Senior Call 2013 state of play, informing on the recent
signature in August of the Contract Grant of the 4 awarded projects who started the
implementation period on 1 September 2014 during 18 months
http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/tourism/tourism-seniors/index_en.htm.

2. At the same time, he announced the recent publication of the Call for proposals
“Facilitating EU transnational tourism flows for seniors and young people in the low
and medium seasons” with one strand for senior and other one for youth with a deadline
for submissions on 15 January 2015: http://ec.europa.eu/easme/en/cos-tflows-2014-3-15.
M Ortún mentioned that the senior initiative has the support of MEPs in the TRAN
Committee as this topic was raised in a hearing with the Italian Minister for Cultural
Heritage and Activities in September, with a view to support the sustainable
competitiveness of the sector.
M Ortún made a particular mention to the call for expression of interest launch last July
to set up a specific Multi-stakeholder Board (EUSTIB) to further develop this initiative.
35 applications have been received by the EC with more participation from southern MS.
Stakeholders from Northern and eastern countries are encouraged to participate more.
Mr. Ortún also informed the audience of the presence of some colleagues from other DGs
involved in the inter-service group for the silver economy (e.g. DG CNECT -Unit H2-
Mr. Arnaud Senn and DG JUST -Units C1- Ms Vesna Ljungquist and -D4 -Mr Andrew
Chapman).
Finally, he pointed out that the meeting aimed at stimulating discussion on the draft
Action Plan for the elaboration of a Road Map 2014-2016 as a next step, with concrete
ideas structured in terms of prioritising, organisation of the work, distribution of roles,
creating working groups, selecting a coordinator/s, establishing a calendar, etc…
He also invited the experts to provide the EC with their concrete opinion and comments
on the Report´s content.
Mr Ortún then invited the participants to go through an action-by-action discussion
throughout the Action Plan objectives.
3. Objective 1 – Improving knowledge to boost the demand, in the EU and from
third countries, sharing and analysing socio-economic data
Mr Oscar Almendros started with a brief introduction on the strategic objectives of the
Report in line with the overall EU policy strategy on growth and jobs. He also referred to
those studies and good practices already existing under EU initiatives (Calypso1,
Accessibility2, the Study “Enhancing the competitiveness of tourism in the EU – An
evaluation of 20 cases of innovation and good practice”3 and the informal questionnaire
launched in September 2013) and some shared during the draft process of the Report by
the pool of experts.
The EC expressed that the objective of these actions will be to “standardize” the
compilation of national, regional and international studies on senior trends, needs,
preferences, etc… as well as best practice projects, into a common platform or “tool” at
EU level, the VTO (Virtual Tourism Observatory). Those studies shall be compared at
1 http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/tourism/calypso/index_en.htm
2 http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/tourism/accessibility/index_en.htm
3 http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/tourism/documents/studies/index_en.htm#h2-4
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3. MS level with a coordinated framework and methodology for its analysis (Rainek
Jellinek -Upper Austrian Tourism Board). One idea could be to share responsibility for
groups of countries among experts.
Both actions under objective 1 were subject to intensive discussions and, in general, the
experts showed a strong support informing on several interesting studies on senior and
ageing ready to be shared with the EC. Some examples could be highlighted:
- Important outcomes of a seminar in Switzerland on river cruising (Lynda Haydon –
ETOA) although difficult to count nights spent on boats.
- There is an ongoing collection of data about behavioural aspects of seniors travelling
through some focal points in EU countries (e.g. Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Germany,
Belgium…). The study is conducted by Carlo Boselli (EURails) in the context of the
European Senior Rail Travel Project (one of the projects selected under last year's call on
Seniors).
- Mercedes Muñoz (EGWA) announced a cycling summary study (figures and trends) of
the greenways. She also informed on their availability to gather studies at EU level.
- Valeria Croce (ETC) proposed to support this project by sharing researches on Senior´s
satisfaction when travelling abroad.
- Carlos Cardoso (University of Lisbon) is compiling a database of relevant
studies/reports on ageing + tourism from different countries to structure a meta-analysis
table, in the framework of a project (COST) financed by DG Research
- Luc Gobin (ISTO) suggested gathering data and studies through the senior
organisations themselves.
The heterogeneity and long term evolution perspectives of the segment, the age scope of
the initiative (55+), the particular target of the studies (public or private, national or
local…) and the format of the reports, studies and its further analysis, were pointed out as
relevant issues to conduct knowledge on senior tourism. Moreover, the barriers to travel
and reasons why senior tourists don´t travel should be a key issue.
Mr. Ortún signalled the need to mobilise the support of the National Governments to
further develop this senior tourism initiative.
With regard to seasonality, he reminded the EURYDICE data base issued by EAC and
also encouraged to improve and follow up the eCalypso data base on school holidays.
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4. Objective 2 – Diversifying the supply
The points on accessibility and quality were also further discussed. Ms Antonella Correra
(DG ENTR Unit E2-tourism and cultural instruments-) informed the participants about
the economic relevance of accessible tourism and announced the publication of the
Report on Economic impact and travel patterns of accessible tourism4.
The accessibility study addresses also demographic impacts and thus different segments
such as the elderly (indeed, some results were highlighted as the huge economic impact
4 The EC has already published this study along with 2 more on improving “mapping skills and training
needs to improve accessibility in tourism services ” and “improving information on accessible tourism
for disabled people”: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/tourism/accessibility/index_en.htm

4. on accessible investments, the lack of information, the importance of medical facilities
and the increasing trends of grandfather/children travels).
Some organisations have gathered good practices and set up guidelines, working groups
or a road map on accessible tourism destinations. The representative of those
organisations, Ms Muñoz, Ms Heidrun Mollenkopf -AGE- and Ms Sandra de Puig -
NECSTouR- expressed their willing to contribute in this action.
With regard to quality, the establishment of common European recommendations were
discussed and Ms Francesca Tudini, HoU -Tourism Policy E1- in DG ENTR, debriefed
about the state of play of the Commission´s proposal to the Council on the
Recommendation of European Tourism Quality Principles: the proposal is in stand-by
and won´t continue unless there is another re-launch by the new Commission.
The standardisation of tourism accessibility was raised by Cristina Russe (ECTAA). Ms
Antonella Correra (Unit E2) informed that concrete feedback to this issue will be made
once the last study on accessibility (supply side) is published.
Mr Oscar Almendros explained that facilitating B2C will be a further stage in the
implementation of B2B processes at EU level, but this should be led by the industry. EC
suggests capitalizing existing platforms at EU level (e.g. eCalypso or Tourismlink) but
this will not exclude a fair competence with other operators. Indeed, promotion activities
on international events could also promote B2B and B2C meetings.
With regard to developing transnational senior-oriented offers, reducing barriers was
mentioned as significance by several stakeholders. The problem of the lack of
harmonized concessions to seniors at EU level was transmitted by Lynda Haydon. This
could be done through legal acts such as recommendations, according to Mr Reinhard
Petry (ESPA). Klaus Ehrlich (EUROGITES) agreed on this reflexion and pointed out the
need to overcome legal obstacles in the provision of public funds suggesting previous
evaluation of these “meta-product” after its design and development. Cristina Russe
mentioned reluctance from industry on the design and development of tourism products
under this initiative, since private operators have already developed plenty of packages
for seniors, without branding them as such.
Mr Ortún signalled that the testing proposal is a complex process that has been already
discussed and it would be difficult to gather the endorsement of the MS´ majority. The
same administrative difficulties are foreseen for any official recommendation.
Moreover, he expressed his perception that there is a lack of transnational tourism
products for this segment, with a huge potential not yet grasped by the market at EU
level. That is why there is enough justification for an EU support to design and develop
the framework conditions for transnational tourism offers for seniors.
5. Objective 3 – Promoting Europe as a single destination
Particular emphasis was made on the idea of branding this initiative, which is supported
in general terms. Several experts underlined that the concept “seniors” covers a
heterogeneous group and we should avoid an exclusive and specific senior-oriented
marketing strategy which could exclude other segments and could be harmful for
marketing purposes. Finally, it was agreed that if we want to be in line with the market
trends on senior behaviours, we have to rethink on the use of the “senior denomination”.
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5. It is really important the way we communicate knowing that the main objective is to
develop senior flows across the EU in low and medium seasons.
Ms Valeria Croce indicated that ETC will promote Europe brand and this initiative in its
“VisitEurope.com”. She proposed to start by educating senior offer and demand through
B2B and B2C events in Europe and long haul markets.
On the other hand, EC will reflect on the terms and conditions to organize a European
award for the promotion of quality senior-oriented infrastructures and services. Ms de
Puig suggested making it extensively on “tourism for all” while Ms Mollenkopf proposed
to build on the model of the European Accessibility City Awards.
After a short explanation by Valentino Izzo (EASME) of the Call for Proposals on
"Facilitating EU transnational tourism flows for seniors and young people in the low and
medium seasons", particularly on youth, the EC explained the international strand:
 On 8 October, EC has been invited in Brazil (Sao Paulo) to coordinate a
Workshop under the framework of the World Social Tourism Organisation
(organised by ISTO and SESC-Sao Paulo-) on Senior Tourism, and to start the
first contacts and aware-raising among EU and Brazil stakeholders (and other
countries as Chili, Mexico and Uruguay) for the pilot phase. A report will be
prepared jointly with ISTO.
 EC started contacts with China (CNTA) with regard to Visa, in order to open
legislation to EU investments on tourism activities and senior tourism. China
expressed interest on this last issue and Pedro announced that EC has proposed
CNTA to celebrate a multi-stakeholder conference (no feedback is been reported).
 A proposal to develop a tourism pilot project “The World Bridge Tourism”, has
been proposed by the TRAN Committee to the Committee on Budgets of the
Parliament (COBU) and has been accepted for a period of 1 year (2015).
 With regard to USA, so far EC contacted the AARP (American Association of
Retirement Pensioners5) exchanging knowledge and best practices.
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6. Objective 4 – Governance and Financing
As expressed in the introduction, the EC expects to select the members of the “EU Senior
Tourism Initiative Board” (EUSTIB) by the 31st October 2014 (finally delayed to the 14th
November). On 16 July 2014, a restricted Call for Expression of Interest was sent to the
main European with a deadline on 30 September 2014. The EUSTIB will be composed of
15 members (with a reserve list of 5 additional members), representing all kinds of public
and private stakeholders and a geographical balance at European level.
After a brief outline of the general and specific objectives of the EUSTIB, Mr. Ortún
announced that the first meeting is foreseen in December 2014 (tbc) and the board will
meet between 2-3 times a year.
5 The American Association of Retired Persons (private interest group) counts 40,000,000 members (over
50 years old) and operating in two relevant directions:
o AARP Services Inc. offers travel packages (among others) for profit
o AARP Foundation is a charity senior organisation (mainly against precariousness and poverty)

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7. Closing Session: next steps
The EC will organise a general information workshop around next June 2015.
Mr. Ortún also informed the participants that a draft road-map (priority actions,
coordinators, actors, calendar, monitoring…) for the next steps will be send to all
stakeholders, along with these minutes, for further contributions and ideas.
Finally, he provided information on the ETF (30-31 October 2014 in Naples) and ETD (1
December 2014 in Brussels). EC will send a “save the date” for this last event to discuss
the results of the two tourism consultations and the new initiatives of a review tourism
strategy to be proposed to the new Commission for the period 2015-2020.
The proposed topics of the ETD will be on the future of Tourism policy in the EU with
probably 5 items (tbc): 1) Digitalisation 2) Branding “Destination Europe” 3)
Simplification of the Regulatory and Administrative Framework 4) Quality in the EU
tourism 5) Governance.