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| theALPS – The First Summit of Tourism Ministers from the Alpine Regions in Innsbruck

In future we will no longer make the decision to go to Alpbach, Algund or Ardez on holiday but rather to go to the Alps, the Andes or Acapulco. The Alpine area with its 500 million overnight stays and 800,000 guest beds needs to assert itself on the global tourism market. In an initiative by Günther Platter, Governor of the Tyrol, a meeting took place for the first time in Innsbruck, the capital of Tyrol and the ‘heart of the Alps’, between political representatives of tourism in Austria, South Tyrol, Italy, Bavaria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein in order to strengthen the Alpine region as an international destination.

Austria’s Minister of Economic Affairs Reinhold Mitterlehner welcomed and supported this common stand by the Alpine Region with the following words: “theALPS’ is a fitting reply to the ever increasing level of competition between the tourism destinations of the world. All Alpine tourism partners can benefit from closer cooperation. Our aim is to further increase the Alps’ market share of international tourism”, adding that ‘theALPS’ could be integrated seamlessly into the Austrian tourism strategy because the Alps were one of its three unique selling propositions together with the sectors of ‘Cities and Culture’ and ‘The Danube and the Lakes’.

The Tyrol as the Catalyst for Cooperation
Governor Günther Platter justified the necessity of this show of solidarity by the Alpine regions as follows: “We must compete in a global arena. As one of the most important tourism regions in the world and as a brand the Alps have great potential when marketed as a single region”. The Governor of the Tyrol, who is also responsible for tourism, went on to state that the Tyrol had a particular responsibility for the strengthening of Alpine tourism because of its prominent position within the group of partners: “We are taking on this responsibility by carrying out this ‘theALPS’ initiative”.

The initiative is also welcomed by the European Commission, which has announced its objective of retaining Europe’s position as the most important tourism destination in the world with 400 million visitors a year. “Europe must continue to be the top international travel destination. The central challenges for European tourism continue to be seasonality and an ageing population”, says Director General Heinz Zourek of the EU Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry.

The Alpine Region Manifesto
The members of government responsible for tourism affirmed the political will to increase cooperation in core issues when they signed the ‘Innsbruck Manifesto’. These issues include training of tourism professionals, acceptance of tourism by the local population, cooperation between agriculture and tourism and a united front for external communication.

Exchange in the sectors of training and further education must be promoted in order to further improve service quality. Attractive exchange programmes in the Alpine region are needed to introduce young people to the tourism sector. The Alpine regions also intend to take a collective approach to strategic groundwork. The Alps need to be positioned as Europe’s fountain of youth and suitable products need to be developed. Particular emphasis should be placed on mountain and school sports weeks.

A Common Front
The Alpine regions wish to provide strong marketing focus on both the core markets within Europe and the potential markets overseas. Another central topic is the channelling of visitors. The countries along the Alpine arc are working towards improved coordination of holiday dates and thus a more even spread of visitor volume. The regions also aim to develop ecologically sustainable mobility solutions. The responsible parties will meet annually and exchange experiences in future in order to consolidate tourism policy relationships between the Alpine regions.

For more information please visit:
www.tirol.gv.at - This site includes the ‘Innsbruck Manifesto’ and the statements of other politicians in charge of tourism.

www.the-alps.eu - This site contains information on the new platform for joint tourism activities for European Alpine tourism, networking and innovative thinking.

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