/ Interview with Mr. Istvan Ujhelyi, Vice-Chair of the European Parliament Transport & Tourism (TRAN) Committee

MEP István Ujhelyi is Vice Chair of the Transport and Tourism (TRAN) Committee and Chair of the TRAN Tourism Task Force. He is also a key member of the Parliamentary Intergroup on the development of European Tourism, Cultural Heritage, Ways of Saint James and other European cultural routes. HOTREC asked Mr. Ujhelyi (S&D, Hungary) to share his views on the EU-China Tourism Year.

1. On the 1st of January 2018, the European Commission will launch the EU-China Tourism year, which was announced by president Juncker two years ago. What will be the major events and projects in this framework? This year was based on my initiation World Bridge Tourism pilot project of the European Parliament, that was aimed to have awareness and detailed programme for EU-China tourism year in 2018. There will be numerous events related to this year. The official opening will be in Venice on 18 January and the first business forum will be held the following day. I would like to mention the EU-China Media Day in the European Parliament, that will be on 28 February. There is a webpage of the year where you can follow the growing numbers of programmes. http://ecty2018.org/ 2. How do you envision the role of the European hospitality industry, in particular at national and/or regional level, as part of the EU-China Tourism year? We all know very well the increasing number of Chinese visitors who come to visit Europe year by year. They like travelling as groups and during their European stay visiting more destinations. The EU – China Tourism year can act efficiently to involve less-known European regions and destinations for Chinese visitors. The European Hospitality Industry has a key role, having this year very successful. The most important task of this year to find the best practices in the hospitality industry, how to work with Chines visitors and to have a sustainable business model for the future. 3. What do you plan for the coming years? I am really delighted that many of our ideas have been supported by the European Parliament and having budgets for pilot projects and preparatory actions in tourism during the past years. These projects help to keep tourism on the political agenda, but have not been enough. My main task is to reach an independent budget line in the EU Budget for tourism policy and have a programme for Joint European Promotion. Parallel with this I started to make the first steps to have an EU - India Tourism Year for 2019.