EU proposes principles to improve tourism quality
21 April 2014
EU proposes principles to improve tourism quality
BRUSSELS, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- The European Commission proposed on Thursday a set of voluntary European Tourism Quality Principles to ensure that tourists traveling to other Member States or visiting the continent from third countries will get value for their money.
These principles cover four main areas: staff training, consumer satisfaction, cleanliness and maintenance, and correctness and reliability of information.
Such access to reliable and up-to-date information on the quality of tourism services enables tourists to differentiate among competing products, to make an informed choice and to overcome linguistic difficulties, the Commission said in a statement.
Small and medium size enterprises (SMEs), which make up over 90 percent of the EU tourism sector, will find it easier to demonstrate that they are providing a high quality service by sticking to the principles.
The recommended principles require enterprises to ensure the training of all employees involved in the provision of services directly to consumers.
Tourism service providers should make information available to consumers on local customs, heritage, traditions, services, products and sustainability aspects.
This initiative will be voluntary for EU Member States and therefore no unnecessary burden is imposed on Member States' administrations, the Commission said.
The proposed recommendations will now be discussed by the Council during the Greek and Italian EU Presidencies.
