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MEP Istvan Ujhelyi, MEP Othmar Karas, President of
the European Parliament Antonio Tajani, HOTREC
President Susanne Kraus-Winkler, UEAPME’s
Secretary General Peter Faross and HOTREC CEO
Christian de Barrin
2016
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2017 HOTREC ANNUAL REPORT
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A Joint HOTREC-UEAPME event on how to make tourism SMEs a driver for job creation
In a joint event held on 30 November 2016 and aimed at fostering job creation and promoting competitiveness
of SMEs across Europe, HOTREC and UEAPME brought together 50 high level stakeholders from the broader
tourism sector. Co-hosted by MEP Othmar Karas, Chair of the European Parliament SME intergroup, and MEP
Istvan Ujhelyi, Vice-Chair of the TRAN Committee, the event counted with the participation of high-level speakers
such as MEP Antonio Tajani (Vice-President of the European Parliament at the time), MEP Cláudia Monteiro de
Aguiar and MEP Claudia Tapardel (co-chair of the European Parliament Tourism Intergroup).
The hospitality sector remains one of the very few sectors which
keeps creating tens of thousands of jobs every year
The event allowed to raise the participants’ awareness about the economic
importance of the tourism sector in Europe, as it provides 13 million jobs
and is the 3
rd
socio-economic activity in Europe. The hospitality industry
also employs 80% of the total EU tourismworkforce (10 million direct jobs)
and provides jobs to all types of workers (33% being relatively unskilled),
therefore acting as a vehicle for social inclusion. Moreover, the hospitality
industry created 2.5 million jobs between 2000 and 2010 and still keeps
creating tens of thousands of jobs.
HOTREC and UEAPME presented 5 pillars to make hospitality
businesses and SMEs more competitive
With the objective to create even more jobs, HOTREC and UEAPME
unveiled 5 pillars of actions:
•
Digitalisation: a level playingfield for all tourismstakeholders including
new providers using platforms needs to be deployed to tackle unfair
competition and allow the 1,8 million small and medium-sized
enterprises of the sector to further invest in sustainable tourism and
modernise their infrastructures;
•
Taxation - high tax wedge on labour constitutes a strong disincentive
for companies to create more jobs. Lower taxes on labour should be
developed;
•
Seasonality is one of the biggest challenges. Public authorities and
social partners should secure the possibility to use flexible working
arrangements;
•
Skills: the hospitality sector is facing a huge skills shortage,
preventing to fill in vacancies. EU and national funding should be
deployed to organise massive trainings, develop apprenticeship
schemes, promote the European Hospitality Skills Passport and
detect emerging skills;
•
The image of the sector should be further promoted through the use
of EU funding.
The event was a crucial opportunity to make the voice of hospitality
businesses and SMEs heard and to show EU policy makers the way
forward to boost even further jobs and growth in the tourism sector.
“We should take better
advantage of the potential
of job creation and growth
inherent to the tourism
sector”
MEP Othmar Karas, 30 November 2016, joint
HOTREC-UEAPME event