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This chapter outlines the major findings of a survey on the rationale of the European Union actions for supporting tourism development and whether these undertakings can lead to a distinctive tourism policymaking. According to Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and European Union documentation, the most important instrument for the implementation of policy is based on tourism-related separate actions analysis, in a way that would enable one to compare the policies at the national and international level. This study suggests that tourism becomes a field whose issues and actions are taken at the regional level. This calls for creating the necessary conditions for the development of the tourism product at the European Union level. Until now, European Union practices do not portend the formation of a distinctive policy in the tourism industry.

Cross-cultural research constitutes a pivotal topic for marketing; however, the literature indicates that there are a few studies analyzing social media reviews from a cross-cultural perspective using cultural proximity (supra-national level) as a proxy of culture. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify cross-cultural differences in service evaluations and specifically, in hotel appraisals among tourists from Central, Eastern (including Post-Soviet States), Northern and Southern Europe.

A quantitative approach has been taken by studying online user-generated ratings of hotels on Trip Advisor. In total, 1,055 reviews of five hotels in Greece were used for the study.

Multivariate analysis of variance and analysis of variances results confirm cultural differences in overall service evaluations and attributes (value, location, sleeping quality, rooms, cleanliness and service) of tourists from various European regions. Specifically, Eastern Europeans uploaded more reviews than any other European group, whereas Northern Europeans were more generous in their appraisals than Eastern, Southern and Central Europeans.

The results of the study could be used for segmentation purposes of the European tourism market and for recognizing, which aspects of their services need to be improved based on the segments they serve. Moreover, managers should encourage Northern and Eastern Europeans to upload their reviews as both groups are more generous in their evaluations. Moreover, the findings are useful to marketers of other services.

To the author’s knowledge, this is the first study that examines cross-cultural differences in hotel appraisals from a supra-national perspective including developed (Northern and Western Europe), developing (Southern Europe) and emerging tourism markets (Eastern Europe).

This research uses the institutional theory perspective to better understand the social dynamics of the European Union (EU) tourism policy and its directions. The purpose of this paper is to critically evaluate the processes, content and outcomes of EU tourism policy.

A thorough literature review involving a critical discourse analysis on the regulative, normative and cultural elements of institutionalisation improves our understanding of the EU policy, in terms of its processes, content and outcomes. Therefore, this paper explores how the European institutions have incrementally legitimised tourism policy among Member States.

Over the years, the EU’s policies were intended to enhance the European single market whilst supporting the growth of the industrial competitiveness, sustainable innovation and entrepreneurship. This has inevitably led to the development of new policies in the realms of tourism.

This contribution has identified a gap in academic research, as it reports about the evolution of EU tourism policy and on the conditions of how it has been planned, organised and implemented. It also exposes the challenges of institutionalising tourism policy in intergovernmental institutions.

Discusses the importance of tourism as the largest generator of wealth and employment in the world and the fact that, despite the clear evidence of tourism importance in economic and social terms and its undeniable perspectives of growth along the next two decades, it has registered great difficulties in obtaining its legal political recognition within the European Union. In conclusion, it is suggested that there ought to be a political recognition of the European tourism as one of the activities of the future, with an enormous capacity to provide new opportunities to satisfy important political objectives, such as the economic growth and wellbeing of populations, employment, regional development, and patrimonial value.

The paper analyses the dramatic global slowdown of tourism caused by the pandemic and how it has provided an exceptional opportunity for the tourism sector to reassess both its priorities and practices, especially in relation to our planet and society.

This paper provides an analysis of the European Travel Commission's position regarding the development of a sustainable tourism ecosystem and the definition of new metrics to measure this transition, thus allowing European National Tourism Organisations (NTOs) to share knowledge and learn from each other.

NTOs across Europe are at different stages in their journey towards a sustainable tourism development model. Some destinations are still focussing on attracting more travellers from international markets while others at a more mature stage, are switching their work towards the management of tourism flows. These latter examples support the approach that developing a tourism strategy should start with the needs of the destination, and the local people should be directly and fully involved in the tourism strategy. Initiatives such as this can support tourism decision-making based on data and firm evidence and help to address doubts and common misunderstandings around how residents feel.

This paper highlights how the European Travel Commission, together with its members, are working towards a new world benchmark for responsible, sustainable and innovative tourism in response to exponential growth of demand, the reality of the ecological transition and the emergence of a new digital era.

Under the Directive 2011/24/EU, medical tourism and cross-border health are interrelated terms regarding the freedom to move to get the most accessible medical treatment into EU Member State within the defined procedures for reimbursement. Little known empirically regarding the efficiency of the cross-border health/medical tourism industry. This study aims to measure its efficiency in Europe for the years 2010-2014, by using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA).

Data obtained from OECD and the European Core Health Indicators (ECHI), which is collecting the data through Eurostat. Eurostat collects data on health-care activities and provides data on hospital discharges, including the hospital discharges of non-residents and these include hospital discharges of in-patients and day care patients. The analysis uses “DEA.P, 2.1 for windows” by Coelli (1996).

The results show that the Members States health systems were very efficient in handling non-residents in-patients; however, when managing day cases/outpatients, the efficiency scores dropped.

The findings would have significant associations affecting intentions to revisit clinics and the destination country. In addition, will be useful to those seeking a better understanding of the cross-border health and medical tourism industry efficiency.

Extending the findings of the European Commission report (2015c) by examining how well medical tourists are informed about the decision they are making, would be of perceived value. These are important indicators at European level by helping each Member State to measure its medical tourism services.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and describe the most recent (or emerging) trends likely to have a major impact in shaping the future of tourism in Europe.

The methodology of this paper involved in-depth literature review of European Union policies, initiatives and programs. Also, semi-structured interviews were conducted with key individuals/organisations, mainly at a European level, but also including pertinent global and national tourism organisations. Moreover, an online survey was also conducted and circulated to a wide range of organisations from all 28 EU Member States. Nvivo was used to analyse the documents as well as to conduct a content and thematic analysis of the interviews.

This paper identifies five trends associated with the future of tourism in Europe. Those main trends are: evolving visitor demand; marketing; stakeholders and tourism governance; new technologies; and sustainable and responsible tourism.

This trends paper provides five useful recommendations for the future of tourism in Europe, including: sustainable tourism development, investment in technology, effective tourism governance, enhance Europe's overall destination brand and marketing strategy, and the need for new skills and training.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of various cultural amenities on tourism demand in 168 European cities.

Using data from the European Commission’s Culture and Creative Cities Monitor 2017, a series of regressions are estimated to examine the impact of various cultural amenities on tourism demand while also controlling for other factors that may impact on tourism demand. Diagnostic tests are also conducted to check the robustness of the results.

The results reveal that cultural amenities in the form of sights, landmarks, museums, concerts and shows have a positive impact on tourism demand. By pinpointing the cultural amenities that are important for increasing tourism demand, the findings aid stakeholders in the tourism industry as they develop post-pandemic recovery plans.

This paper identifies two key aspects of the cultural tourism literature that require deeper investigation and aims to address these aspects. Firstly, while many studies focus on a specific or narrow range of cultural amenities, this study includes a series of measures to capture a range of cultural amenities. Secondly, while many studies are narrow in geographical scope, this paper includes data on 168 European cities across 30 countries.