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Jens Zimmer Christensen
President
Christian de Barrin
Chief Executive Officer
2018
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2019 HOTREC ANNUAL REPORT
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MESSAGE FROM HOTREC PRESIDENT
AND HOTREC CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
HOTREC joined the World Tourism Organization One Planet Travel with Care Programme and developed a Charter
to improve energy efficiency in the tourism sector bringing together ETC, ETOA, EuroACE, EuroCommerce, METRO
Group, NECSTouR, SMEunited, The European Alliance to Save Energy and UNWTO. HOTREC was also appointed
Rapporteur for the food service sector by the European Commission to develop recommendations in food waste
prevention.
The industry’s contribution to society took a new step ahead through the creation of 1,6 million new jobs between
2013 and 2016, now providing 11,9 million direct jobs in 2 million enterprises, making it a European Champion not
only for growth but also for job creation.
HOTREC played a prominent role in the policy arena and worked closely with the EU Institutions to ensure that
the platform-to-business relations Regulation would provide fairness and transparency not only to the 200,000
European hotels, but also to the millions of European customers, making the revision of the Consumer Law a must.
Collaborative economy platforms remained under strong pressure and got Airbnb taking commitments towards
the European Commission in particular on the differentiation between traders and peers to be enforced thanks to
the network of consumer competition authorities. This also is true with the Juncker New skills Agenda for Europe
including a piece of legislation on work life balance for parents and carers, which stroked for a good balance for
workers and enterprises.
The European elections provided HOTREC with the opportunity to communicate its main priorities during a High-
Level European Parliament event kindly hosted by MEP De Monte in presence of 65 participants from the broader
tourism sector and the EU Institutions, prioritized as follows: making the registration of activity in short term
accommodation rental activities a must; promoting a new thinking on subsidiarity and exerting EU competences;
revising the EU’s regulatory framework to recognize platforms’ liabilities; fostering voluntary initiatives for healthy
lifestyles instead of horizontal legislation, and making the fight against skills shortage a truly EU case.
Last but not least, Azerbaijan and Georgia joined HOTREC, taking the HOTREC Membership to 43 national
Associations in 31 countries.
We take this opportunity to thank the HOTREC Membership for their ongoing support and the EU Institutions for
an excellent cooperation over the past 5 years and we look forward to continuing same.
The past 12 months saw the European
hospitality industry further engaging into
sustainable tourism