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HOTREC European Hospitality

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Travel & Tourism Industry Unites for a Sustainable Future

🌍 In April 2024, European travel and tourism associations signed a Joint Declaration on sustainability in Rhodes with goals to decarbonise and collaborate with EU policymakers. The 2024-2029 sustainability asks include simplified regulations, increased EU green investment support, integration into EU energy policies, and promoting intermodal transport. These initiatives aim to create a competitive, resilient industry, supporting microenterprises in hospitality. For details, see the Rhodes Forum Leaflet and Joint Declaration.
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How Reusable Packaging is Transforming Hospitality

🍴 HOTREC representatives Marine Thizon and Jasper Dober visited Thai Café in Belgium, owned by Michel De Bloos. Thai Café, with 22 branches, shifted from single-use plastic to a reusable packaging system using Kiobox - a mix of ABS plastic and wood fibers, lasting five years without quality loss, achieving a 90% return rate, and saving over 5 million single-use boxes. The chain delivers 75% of orders in-house due to limitations of food delivery platforms' support for reusables and faces challenges like high commission charges on refunds by payment processors and ambiguous EU regulations concerning reusable packaging.
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Interview with Paweł Niewiadomski

🏖 In 2025, the Polish tourism industry saw over 8.7 million customers traveling with tour operators and welcomed approximately 20 million tourists last year. Polish travelers often holiday multiple times annually, boosting the hotel sector, which includes internationally recognized chains and SMEs. SMEs face digitalization challenges, requiring EU and national program support. European policies, like PEF, aim to help businesses document sustainability efforts and compare environmental footprints, enhancing competitiveness in the EU's hospitality sector. Collaboration between national tourism associations and European institutions is key to fostering a fair competitive field, especially for SMEs in the highly competitive market.
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06/03/2024 Platform Economy , Digital Joint industry statement on Google Search and Article 6.5 of the Digital Markets Act

📌 Associations across airline, hospitality, and retail sectors are observing Alphabet's adjustments to Google Search for DMA compliance, which should not redirect to OSSs or diminish direct suppliers' organic visibility. Google's late stakeholder communication in 2023 left many unaware of the impending changes. Airlines for Europe (A4E) carried over 610 million passengers in 2022, with a fleet of 3,300 aircraft serving nearly 2,000 destinations. Ecommerce Europe acts for European online merchants. The European Hotel Forum represents over 6,000 European hoteliers. EuroCommerce speaks for 5 million companies in retail/wholesale, employing 26 million Europeans. HOTREC, the voice of European hospitality, represents 2 million businesses providing 10 million jobs. Independent Retail Europe covers 23 groups with 462,000 retailers, 737,000 outlets, and a retail turnover exceeding €1,385 billion, supporting 6.4 million jobs. Monitoring of Google's changes is expected to start on 6 March 2024.
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09/04/2024 Tourism , Sustainability , Press release Travel and tourism industry unites to tackle climate change

🏝 European travel and tourism representatives met in Rhodes, Greece, to sign a declaration for sustainable travel and tourism. It establishes a roadmap for collaboration and sustainability goals, emphasizing decarbonisation and policy engagement. Ahead of the EU elections, the declaration advocates for sustainable tourism budget lines and policy support. It reinforces decarbonisation pledges from the Glasgow and Toulouse Declarations, promotes industry awareness, supports SMEs, and encourages education and training. Regular stakeholder meetings will assess progress. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and South Aegean Governor George Hatzimarkos endorsed the event. Organizations involved include A4E, ACI Europe, CLIA, ECTAA, EEIA, ERA, HOTREC, IAAPA, IRU, and Ruraltour.
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26/06/2024 Position paper , Social Affairs Strengthening Quality Traineeships

📝 On 26 June 2024, HOTREC published a position paper stating their priorities on the European Commission’s proposed Directive on Traineeships and Council Recommendation on a reinforced Quality Framework for Traineeships (QFT). HOTREC calls for clearer rules, particularly for SMEs, arguing against unnecessary legislation in countries where trainee protections already exist through labor laws. They suggest that a revision of the existing QFT is preferable to a new Directive. HOTREC emphasizes the need to avoid creating a new category of worker, to reduce red tape, to respect definitions and collective bargaining agreements, and to consider remuneration flexibility.
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02/07/2024 Study , Digital , Press release Digital Trends in Accommodation: Hotels, Booking.com and DMA

📦 HOTREC's 2024 Hotel Distribution Study highlights Booking.com's market dominance in the European hotel sector, with a 71% OTA market share, an increase of 10% over 10 years. Direct hotel bookings continue to decrease, and OTAs underprice hotels in 40% of cases. European hotels' reliance on OTAs, especially smaller ones, is significant, with OTAs responsible for 45% of online overnight stays. The study, in collaboration with HES-SO Valais Wallis, surveyed over 3000 hotels and focused on OTA roles, advocating for the DMA to ensure fair digital rules.
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18/07/2024 Statement , Tourism Priorities for the European Tourism Sector

🏖 On 18 July 2024, over 70 European tourism sector organisations launched the European Tourism Manifesto. HOTREC, actively involved in drafting, highlighted priorities for the legislative term: decarbonisation, smart EU funding, resilient connectivity, freedom of movement, and skills training. The Tourism Manifesto Alliance urges the EU for a Tourism Commissioner, a Tourism Taskforce in Parliament, and annual Ministerial Council meetings.
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