Presentation on ETIS System at Summer School "Leadership and Governance for Sustainable Tourism" -2nd July 2014 Finland

1. PM4SD European Summer School
Seinajoki, July 02, 2014
Cinzia De Marzo
European Commission, DG Enterprise & Industry
Tourism Policy Unit

2. European Tourism Indicator System
ETIS
For the Sustainable Management of Destinations

3. ETIS Background
Commission Communication
COM (2010) 352
'Europe destination n.1 in the world: a new political
framework for tourism in Europe
'
Action 11- Develop, on the basis of NECSTouR or
EDEN, a system of indicators for the
sustainable management of destinations.
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-

4. When started
Launched in a public conference on 22 February 2013,
together with a Toolkit (guidelines), available in all EU
languages.
Objective
To help destinations to measure and monitor their
sustainability management processes and performances.
Main benefits for the destinations
To assist destinations develop tourism in more sustainable
manner and generate economic benefits, including improved
destination reputation and greater visitor satisfaction
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5. What is the European Tourism
Indicator System (ETIS)?
• A management system for tourism destinations
consisting of:
• A Toolkit
• A set of core indicators
• An additional set of optional indicators
• A Dataset to record and store indicator data
• An indicator based system
• Simple to use and flexible
• Provides a more intelligent approach to tourism
planning

6. The Ultimate Goal
• A European wide comparable
system
• A concrete tool to help
destinations to be more aware
about sustainable tourism

7. The
structure
of the
toolkit

8. What’s in the toolkit?
• Part 1: European
destination
management
• Part 2: Step-by-step
guide to
implementation
• Part 3: The core and
optional indicators
• Part 4: The destination
dataset

9. How many indicators are there?
There are 67 indicators
• 27 core
• 40 optional
Balancing the need to be
• comprehensive
• realistic
• integrated

10. How are the indicators organized?
Four categories
• Destination management
• Social and cultural impact
• Economic value
• Environmental impact

11. Destination management indicators
• Have a plan or strategy
• Have a certification
system in place for
tourism operators
• Conduct regular visitor
surveys
• Communicate their
sustainability efforts to
visitors

12. Economic value indicators
• Tourist nights
• Daily spending
• Length of stay
• Occupancy rates
• Employment
• Use of local product

13. Social and cultural impact indicators
• Visitors per resident
• Beds per resident
• Employment by gender
• Accessibility
• Cultural heritage
protection

14. Environmental impact indicators
• Modes of transport
• Climate change mitigation
• Waste recycling
• Sewage treatment
• Water consumption
• Energy conservation

15. How does the System work?

16. Step 1. Raise Awareness
Step 2. Create a Destination
Profile
Step 3. Form a Stakeholder
Working Group (SWG)
Step 4. Establish Roles and
Responsibilities
Step 5. Collect and Record
Data
Step 6. Analyse results
Step 7. Enable ongoing
Development and Continuous
improvement
ReturntoSWGtoagreeprioritiesand
developaplanofaction
How to implement ETIS:
The Seven Steps

17. Implementation: Step by Step
STEP 1: Raise Awareness
• Communicate involvement
• Identify stakeholders
STEP 2: Create a Destination Profile
• Identify geographic / jurisdictional boundaries of your destination
• An overview for stakeholders and those less familiar
STEP 3: Bring together a Stakeholder Working Group (SWG)
• Invite relevant stakeholders
• Convene a participatory workshop
• Identify core issues and indicators
STEP 4: Establish Roles and Responsibilities
• Responsibility is shared so no one is over-burdened
• Stakeholders collect data for only 1 or 2 indicators each
• SWG Members collect indicator data according to role
• Destination Co-ordinator acts as central point of contact for data collation

18. The Stakeholder Working Group
Indicator theme: Stakeholder could be a senior
representative from:
Visitor numbers Tourism authority
Energy consumption Local energy provider
Recycling rates Municipal waste department
Biodiversity Environment Dept and/or local NGO or
campaign group
Quality of tourism jobs Local university or college
Community attitudes to tourism Residents Association or community
group
Occupancy rates Hotels Association

19. Where to Find the Toolkit?
Translated in all EU official languages
http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/tourism/sustainable-
tourism/indicators/index_en.htm

20. ETIS State of play
• 104 destinations across Europe have applied for the first
pilot testing phase (started the 15th July 2013- till the end of
April 2014) and they were strong motivated to work on
testing ETIS, coming from:
• Belgium, Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, Italy, Latvia, Ireland, Romania, Slovakia,
Slovenia, Spain, Greece, Scotland, Netherland, Lithuania, Croatia, Sweden,
UK, Portugal, Turkey.
• 10 professional expert have been seletected, to help the
EC to assess the feedback and results of the testing phases
• All destinations were requested to send to the Commission
the final questionnaire, after the end of the pilot phase (9
months) and a mid term-reports (after 5 months)

21. MAIN OUTCOMES OF THE MID TERM REPORTS
• 50 destinations have sent their mid-term reports to the
Commission and 7 destination have retracted their application
• Some difficulties in the implementation process such as:
• limited time available to implement the system and
communicating/engaging with stakeholders;
• technical challenge of collecting the data and limited
resources available to collect the data,
• lack of human and financial resources, especially in the small
destinations

22. THE FINAL QUESTIONNAIRES
• 26 final questionnaires have been sent to the Commission,
after the end of first ETIS pilot phase, (but 2 of them were not
completed)
• 24 destinations were invited to participate to the selection of
maximum 6 destinations, to be invited as a panellists at the
ETIS workshop foreseen in Bruxelles, the 4th July 2014
• The analysis of the final questionnaires, as results of the
first ETIS pilot testing phase, will be presented during the
workshop of the 4th July

23. The feedback from an EDEN destination
Durbuy, Belgium
• Network position regarding the use of indicators for
sustainable tourism was positive;
• Even if it took time to implement all criteria, they were
willing to use it and to spread it among our members.
• Sometimes, in a day to day work with visitors, it was hard to
find time to anticipate sustainable development.
• Before being able to use daily these 67 indicators they would
like their destination members to be familiar with self-
evaluation, step by step;
• That's why they suggested to use 16 main indicators.

24. Theme Criteria (16)
Local Economy · Number of tourist nights per year
· Direct tourism employment as percentage in
total local employment
· Average length of stay of tourists (nights)
· Percentage of tourism enterprises sourcing a
minimum of 25% of food produced locally
Management · Percentage of visitors that are satisfied with
overall experience
· Percentage of the destination covered by a
destination management organisation or institutional
arrangements involving public and private stakeholders
in decision making processes for tourism development
and promotion
· Percentage of the destination with a sustainable
tourism strategy / action plan
Environnemen
t
 Tracking energy use on a regular basis (at least
quarterly)
 Using at least 75% energy-efficient light bulbs
 Having current and active towel and linen re-use plans in
place
 Recycling at least two types of waste
 Staff training on green practices
Social -
Cultural
· Number of tourists / visitors per 100 residents
· Percentage of men and women in tourism
employment
· Percentage of sites considered accessible
· Percentage of events that are based on
traditional culture and local assets

25. ETIS NEXT STEPS
• The second pilot testing phase started in May till end
December 2014. About 110 destinations across Europe (also
non EU countries like Albania, Montenegro, Macedonia and
Norway), have volunteered to test the ETIS this time, coming
from Croatia, Italy, Spain, Greece, Slovenia and Hungary,
France, Germany, UK, Ireland, Romania, Lithuania, Sweden,
Austria, Malta, Portugal and Bulgaria.
• ETIS workshop: Bruxelles 4th July 2014, at presenting the
outcomes of the first testing pilot phase and future steps to
develop and improve the system
• http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/newsroom/cf/itemdetail.cfm?item_id
=7530

26. ETIS Future actions
• Based on the results of the 2 pilot testing phases, the
Commission will assess the system, taking into account the
analysis of the feedback of the destinations engaged in the
process;
• The Commission could consider the possibility in improving the
modality of collection of data or other components of the toolkit;
• No dedicated budget is foreseen in COSME work programme
2014, but the the Commission could consider the possibility to
promote raising awareness and communication activities about
sustainable tourism, including ETIS
• Workshops,info days other initiatives such as the European
summer school, represent a good model which can be replicated
also in other Member States

27. Contact details
Unit E1. Tourism policy
ENTR-TOURISM-POLICY@ec.europa.eu
http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/se
ctors/tourism/index_en.htm
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Thank you for
your attention!