Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs

Innovation and Advanced Manufacturing

Tourism, Emerging and Creative Industries

Workshop "Towards an age-friendly tourism - Opportunities for the low-medium season"

Tuesday 13 September 2016 09:30 - 17:00

Auditorium - Breydel building AVENUE D'AUDERGHEM 45, 1040 BRUSSELS

DISCUSSION NOTE

A. BACKGROUND

1. Objectives of the Workshop The Workshop is organized to conclude and wrap up the activities of the EU Low-Medium Season Tourism Initiative Board which was set-up on an ad-hoc basis for a two-year mandate to support the Commission with expertise on low-medium season tourism. The objectives of the Workshop are, amongst others, to:  Present current best practices and discuss about future prospects and policy guidance on low- season tourism.  Present the EULSTIB Final Report and discuss some of its recommendations, gathering also other important recommendations that are missing in the Report.  Provide an occasion for industry stakeholders´ networking and discuss about their intentions and possible modalities of cooperation in the future as well as about their interest in joining other Commission-supported initiatives, such as the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing, in particular Action Group D4- Innovation for age friendly buildings, cities and environments (see point 4 beneath).

2. EU Low-Medium Season Tourism Initiative The 2010 Communication1 on tourism identifies the extension of the tourism season as an important priority action. In this context, the Commission started the implementation of policy actions to foster voluntary tourism exchanges between Member States enabling certain key groups such as young or elderly people to travel, particularly during the low season, from 2012 to 2015.

1 COM (2010) 352 final – 30.06.2010 1

In 2013-2014, the Commission prepared an informal report2 and action plan looking at facilitating cooperation mechanisms to increase senior tourists' travels within Europe and from third countries in the low and medium seasons. After a consultation with the public and private sector, the Commission set up on an ad-hoc basis the EU Low-Medium Season Tourism Initiative Board (EULSTIB) for a two-year mandate (2015-2016) to support it with expertise on low-medium season tourism. The EULSTIB group was asked to define a roadmap for actions to boost low-medium season tourism and to ensure the orientation, coordination and monitoring of the activities. The group gathered together experts from governments, European industry, academia and civil society. The roadmap presented by EULSTIB highlighted two key objectives: 1. Improve knowledge to be able to identify a “senior tourism profile” to boost demand in low- medium seasons- within the EU and from third countries, by sharing and analyzing socioeconomic and travel data. 2. Facilitate the creation of a transnational business model for an age-friendly tourism at EU level with a view to improving the offer, promoting Europe as a single destination and improving governance at all levels as well as exploring financing opportunities.

The EULSTIB Report (see annex) is the final delivery of the EULSTIB initiative. It gathers together knowledge and provides an overview of current and planned age-friendly tourism related products, initiatives and policies in Europe, giving priority, but not limited to those planned to support tourism in the low-medium season. It identifies best practices and most promising transnational products where low season tourism can create new jobs and economic growth, while helping to address the societal challenge of seasonality. Finally, it provides a set of recommendations at EU level regarding how to best extend the low tourism season taking advantage, among others, of age-friendly tourism.

3. Commission support to project partnerships related to low-medium season tourism In line with the 2010 Communication on tourism, in order to facilitate transnational tourism flows for seniors and young people in the low-medium season, the Commission has co-funded 25 project partnerships in the context of three calls for proposals (2013-2015)3.

4. Commission's Silver Economy initiatives - Action Group D4- Innovation for age friendly buildings, cities and environments (within the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing - EIP on AHA)

In October 2015, the Commission set up an informal Silver Economy ISG coordinated by DG CONECT with the participation of other DGs (EMPL, JUST, GROW, REGIO, SANTE, ECFIN, SEC- GEN…). As a consequence of the work two deliverables were presented:

2 https://ec.europa.eu/growth/sectors/tourism/offer/seniors-youth_en 3 https://ec.europa.eu/growth/sectors/tourism/offer/seniors-youth_en 2

a) A Final Report with some scenarios for collaboration between DGs. (e.g. collaboration GROW-CNECT on innovative solutions to improve quality of life, ensuring innovative environments, smart destinations, IT uptake and accessibility for elderly tourists when travelling).

b) A Study on the Silver Economy potential in Europe which will define ten promising scenarios in different sectors where demographic change can generate economic benefits. At least one of them is likely to concern tourism (inception report presented last 20 April 2016 and implementation until February 2017)4.

Under the Europe 2020 Strategy, one important priority is the Innovation Union, which contains over thirty action points including ground-breaking initiatives like the European Innovation Partnerships. For example, in line with the silver economy, the Partnership on active and healthy ageing aims to add an average of two years of healthy life for everyone in Europe. This Partnership pursues a triple win for Europe: (a) enabling EU citizens to lead healthy, active and independent lives while ageing; (b) improving the sustainability and efficiency of social and health care systems; (c) boosting and improving the competitiveness of the markets for innovative products and services, responding to the ageing challenge at both EU and global level, thus creating new opportunities for businesses. Under this Partnership a specific Action Group "Innovation for age friendly buildings, cities and environments" has been set up. The main objective of the Action Group D4 on Innovation for age friendly buildings, cities and environments is to bring together partners from all over Europe who are committed to implementing strategies for the creation of age-friendly environments which support active and healthy ageing of the European population. The current Action Group brings together partners representing around 70 multi- stakeholders who are composed of regional and local authorities from across the EU, European NGOs, technology providers, research centres, and SMEs. A new Action Plan 2016-2018 has been drafted in February 2016 and driven by the AG members under the coordination of the EC services (DG SANTE and DG CNCT) supported by the PROEIPAHA Coordination and Support Action (CSA). The overall objective is to contribute to create a more inclusive society, communities and R&D systems across Europe by empowering older people to actively participate in the creation of age-friendly environments through scaled up inclusive solutions.

Four broad domain areas have been identified to address the challenge and organise the work ahead. Among these "Age-Friendly Tourism and its impact" have been identified to promote active and healthy habits by increased participation of older people in leisure activities linked to age-friendly tourism. The Actions identified in the action plan for this domain are:

 To promote age friendly tourism and to improve its branding.  To work AF tourism into the Smart Cities agenda and to enhance the need for accessible accommodations and activities, as well as user centred technologies and communication.

4 Objectives of the study: • Provide an estimation of the potential size of the European Silver Economy from now until 2025 in terms of markets, economic growth potential and GDP impacts. • Provide an overview of current and planned Silver Economy related initiatives in Europe. 3

Another important domain would be Inclusive Smart Cities to connect with the Smart Cities initiative (EIP-SCC) and the Alliance for Internet of Things Innovation (AIOTI) to make sure that the principles of AFE are embedded in concepts, theory and practice. The Actions identified for this domain are:  To investigate strategies to apply principles that work for cities to rural areas as well (smart rural areas).  To set up a group of local/regional authorities with similar challenges –work on WHO Guidelines.  To advocate extending the EIP smart cities to rural areas/communities.  To identify good practices.

B. RECCOMMENDATIONS FOR DISCUSSION AT THE MORNING SESSION Story Telling. Exploiting best practices and synergies between Commission co-funded projects

 Project coordinators will present their projects.  The focus of the session will be on identifying successful experiences, opportunities and challenges as well as the potential for replicability of existing best practices and synergies amongst projects.  Participants will be asked to reflect on the following questions and participate proactively in the discussion to really generate some outcomes and decisions:

Questions to be discussed with the audience after the interventions:  What are the key successes factors/added value of the projects?  What is missing/limiting project success (e.g. IT related fields, dissemination of results, regulatory environment, communication between projects, etc…)?  Is there a potential for replicability of any of the projects/best practices presented? What are the factors which could enable their possible replicability?  What kind of cooperation exists among projects? Do you see any added-value in cooperation with other project consortia and other stakeholders at EU level?  If no cooperation exists, what is the reason for this and how could this be improved?

C. RECCOMMENDATIONS FOR DISCUSSION AT THE AFTERNOON SESSION Discussion on the key recommendations from the EULSTIB informal report  Participants will be asked to reflect on the following questions and participate proactively in the discussion to really generate some outcomes and decisions:

a) "Improving knowledge on seasonality patterns"? Do you think there is a need / potential use for a system of indicators on age-friendly tourism and seasonality?

 Are the statistical sources from enough to inform industry and policy makers on seasonality patterns?  Is there any existing measurement / assessment tool that could be used (e.g. possibly after adaptation to the purpose)?  Is there need for further measurement/assessment tools? How and who would be most appropriate to develop such measurement/assessment tools?  Which should be the role of each actor and which interface with EU institutions?

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b) Added-value of improving age-friendly tourism in low/medium season to increase growth and jobs

 Is public intervention at EU, national or regional level needed to incentivise age-friendly tourism in low-medium season or shall it be the industry to lead market-driven actions?  Which should be the role of each actor and in particular EU institutions to improve age- friendly tourism in low/medium season to increase growth and jobs?  How to better tackle low/medium season tourism: target tourists by interest/challenges rather than by age range?  Does the EU/industry need to better support the business environment for SMEs to operate and improve their business in (tools, infrastructure, methods, structural changes…) rather than support individual products, networks, platforms or websites? c) What is the role of digital innovation in relation to low-season and age-friendly tourism?

 What are the technologies/ digital tools / good practices already in place to support low- season and age-friendly tourism?  Which ones should be further explored and exploited (with a view to significant added value and sustainability)?  What are the main challenges presented by digitisation to the actors of age-friendly and low- season tourism?  How can these be overcome (based on good practice)?  What is the role of the different actors of low-season and age-friendly tourism in further pursuing the IT innovation path?  How could the EU institutions precisely support digital innovation in this field? d) Synergies with and cooperation of tourism stakeholders in the Action Group D4 on "Innovation Age-Friendly Buildings Cities and Environments" under the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing

 Do you wish to cooperate with AG D4 on "Innovation Age-Friendly Buildings Cities and Environments" in the implementation of its Action plan 2016-2018 on tourism?  In which areas/fields are you interested and could you provide support?  Which should be the role of each actor and what are expectations towards EU institutions? e) Are there any other recommendations missing in the Report?

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