Committees & Working Groups

HOTREC’s Working Groups and Committees play an important role in the organisation.

Each Working Group and Committee is in charge of one specific policy area and gathers the expertise of several representatives of HOTREC’s members.

Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee

The social dialogue committee runs HOTREC’s sectoral social dialogue with its trade-union counterpart EFFAT, based on the mandate conferred by the General Assembly. The social dialogue committee comprises five HOTREC representatives, including one Chairman, which are elected by the General Assembly for a renewable period of two years.

The Members of HOTREC’s Social Dialogue Committee:

THE MEMBERS OF HOTREC’S SECTORAL SOCIAL DIALOGUE COMMITTEE WERE ELECTED ON 15 OCTOBER 2020 DURING THE 81st GENERAL ASSEMBLY:

Jean-Marc Banquet d’Orx – Chair – France
Angelo Candido – Member – Italy
Daniel Debono – Member – Malta
Fatima Hollander – Member – Sweden
Paul Schoormans – Member – Netherlands
Sami Nisametdin – Member – Finland

Distribution Working Group

Markus Luthe

Chair

HOTREC members discuss about issues related to the (online) distribution of hospitality services. It also coordinates studies and projects, which may help the industry as well as policy makers to better understand the challenges the fragmented hospitality sector is facing vis-à-vis the very few dominant online platforms, which have become the main access gates to the market.

Late-Night Entertainment Working Group

Antonio Flamini

Chair

Late-night entertainment:

Is part of European culture and model of society;
Is a net contributor to the European economy;
Is crucial for other parts of the hospitality sector, like hotels and similar establishments;
Is an economic driver for town centers;
Provides a large number of jobs, therefore bringing opportunities to a wide range of people including full-time and part-time flexible working and
Contributes to the personal development and well-being of European citizens and their involvement in social and convivial activities

For all these reasons HOTREC members gather twice a year to discuss topics related with late-night core business activities, such as alcohol (including voluntary measures to curb alcohol related harm); noise pollution; smoking bans; security; fire safety measures; health, amongst other topics.

Restaurant, Bars & Cafes Working Group

Adrian Cummins

Chair

The Restaurant, Bars & Cafes Task Force is a forum for HOTREC members to discuss all issues affecting more specifically restaurants, bars and pubs, such as food policy, nutrition, alcohol, exclusive beverage supply contracts, accessibility in restaurants and pubs, etc.

Shadow Hospitality Working Group

Ramón Estalella Halffter

Chair

HOTREC members discuss about the opportunities and challenges brought about by the rapidly rising phenomenon of so-called ‘collaborative’ type of activities.

The Shadow Hospitality Task Force exchanges views on practices across the HOTREC member countries and also develops the main policy lines to be proposed to policy makers across Europe.

Sustainability Working Group

Marc Van Muylders

Chair

The Sustainability Working Group discusses relevant European policy issues related to sustainable tourism and hospitality (e.g. lowering the carbon footprint of the sector, energy efficiency, water management, etc.). and favors the exchange of sustainable best practices among HOTREC Members.

Coastal Tourism Working Group

Antonio Flamini

Chair

HOTREC cooperates actively with European Institutions and other tourism stakeholders to address all challenges faced by the hospitality sector in coastal areas (e.g. seasonality, accessibility, sustainability, shortage of skills and overtourism).

The Coastal Tourism Working Group will work to propose solutions to these challenges, taking into account existing EU Institutions actions on the topic (e.g. the proposal issued by the European Commission on “A European Strategy for more Growth and Jobs in Coastal and Maritime Tourism” (COM (2014) 86 final).