As part of EU’s Blue Growth strategy, the coastal and maritime tourism sector has been identified as an area with special potential to foster a smart, sustainable and inclusive Europe. It is the biggest maritime sector in terms of gross value added and employment and, according to the Blue Growth Study, is expected to grow by 2-3% by 2020. In 2012, Cruise tourism alone represents 330,000 jobs and a direct turnover of 15.5 billion and is expected to grow.
To unlock the potential in this sector, the EU Commission adopted a Communication on ‘A European Strategy for more Growth and Jobs in Coastal and Maritime Tourism’ on 20 February 2014, presenting a new strategy to enhance coastal and maritime tourism in Europe.
In the framework of action 3 of the European Strategy for more Growth and Jobs in Coastal and Maritime Tourism, the first Pan-European Cruise dialogue was launched with a conference in Brussels in March 2015. This dialogue answers a specific request from stakeholders for the promotion of a structured dialogue on cruise tourism to enhance synergies in the sector, targeting best practice sharing in innovation, competitiveness and sustainability strategies. It was attended by more than 200 stakeholders from ports, cruises lines and coastal regions. The Dialogue conclusions upheld these objectives and announced the initiative would continue at regional level to foster ‘regional cooperation towards joint policy development’.
In October 2015, the first regional dialogue for the Mediterranean took place in Olbia, Italy. In this event, stakeholders from cruise lines, ports and destinations agreed to compile a ‘Common Challenges Paper’ which is now in progress. This paper would establish benchmarked objectives to overcome those challenges (i.a. via milestones, action plan, identification of actors and timetable).
The regional dialogue for the Baltic will continue this regional approach to foster solutions for cruise tourism and to bring stakeholders closer together in a common effort for a more sustainable and competitive sector in the Baltic. This event will respond to the increased need for further involvement of coastal tourism stakeholders in cruise tourism, help steer the dialogue between the main cruise actors of Baltic on common challenges and encourage agreement on concrete steps and actions to be undertaken at regional level, ahead of the next pan-European cruise dialogue.
