CAPTAIN Final Conference in Trieste

My speech to the Final Conference of the IPA CBC 2007-2013 Project CAPTAIN, held in Trieste on November 16, 2016, in which I spoke about the "harmonisation of services for passengers with special needs in the Port system of the Adriatic - Ionian area".

Capitalizzazione e trasporto marittimo passeggeri. Il progetto CAPTAIN

Articolo pubblicato online il 25 OTTOBRE 2016 su L'Informatore navale di Napoli

http://www.informatorenavale.it/news/un-esempio-di-capitalizzazione-dei-risultati-prodotti-nell%E2%80%99ambito-dei-trasporti-passeggeri-marittimi-il-progetto-captain/  

Un esempio di capitalizzazione dei risultati prodotti nell’ambito dei trasporti passeggeri marittimi: il progetto CAPTAIN

L'evento di Mid-term del progetto CAPTAIN (acronimo di Capitalization of Transport models in Adriatic Ionian Network for supporting EUSAIR development / Capitalizzazione di modelli di trasporto nella rete adriatico-ionica a supporto dello sviluppo di EUSAIR),  svoltosi a Rijeka (Croazia) lo scorso 15 settembre 2016 è stata l'occasione per presentare lo stato dei lavori relativi all'attività di capitalizzazione prevista nell'ambito dello stesso progetto.

CAPTAIN risponde alla comune esigenza di migliorare l'accessibilità e la mobilità nel bacino adriatico-ionico (AI) e nel suo entroterra, attraverso lo sviluppo di servizi di trasporto integrato, sostenibili, sicuri, a carattere transfrontaliero (CB), attraverso anche un miglioramento delle infrastrutture.

L’azione di capitalizzazione interessa tre distinti progetti realizzati grazie al finanziamento del programma europeo Adriatic IPA CBC 2007-2013, di cui uno (il primo) ritenuto dal programma di “interesse strategico”: EA SEA-WAY, ADRIMOB e AdriaticMos.

Gli obiettivi specifici di CAPTAIN riguardano a) la promozione di analisi e studi di fattibilità, b) la creazione di sinergie allo scopo di sviluppare una più ampia rete di attori del settore dei trasporti per rafforzare le loro capacità e c) lo sviluppo e il trasferimento di strumenti, modelli, esperienze e buone pratiche implementati nei differenti progetti. Inoltre, si e’ voluto influire, aumentandolo, sull'impatto dei tre progetti capitalizzati sulle politiche nazionali e regionali nell'area adriatico-ionica, allo scopo di stimolare strategie macro-regionali, garantendo un coordinamento degli interventi tesi a superare le problematiche, le  strozzature e i collegamenti mancanti, sia per il trasporto passeggeri e merci, con una particolare attenzione rivolta a forme di cooperazione con le organizzazioni europee e multilaterali esistenti aventi obiettivi simili o convergenti, al fine di evitare sovrapposizioni con organismi ed enti già operanti nel settore, e trovare una complementarietà e sinergie con il cosiddetto "Processo di Berlino”, iniziativa diplomatica legata all'allargamento dell'Unione europea ai paesi dei Balcani occidentali.

La rilevanza dell'attività di capitalizzazione del progetto CAPTAIN è data dall'attenzione riposta affinché l'azione sia in linea e di supporto alla strategia EUSAIR ed ai suoi obiettivi inerenti alla Connettività della regione (Pilastro 2) e in particolare alle tematiche relative al trasporto marittimo (Tematica 1) e alle connessioni intermodali con l’entroterra (Tematica 2).

Inoltre, è da tenere a debita considerazione il luogo e il momento dello svolgimento dell’evento (In Croazia, a metà settembre), alla luce dell’imminente lancio del primo bando del programma transfrontaliero Italia-Croazia, che prevede, tra gli assi prioritari definiti di interesse, una forte attenzione per gli aspetti legati al trasporto e alla mobilità marittimi.

L’evento ha dato l’opportunità di presentare tre delle attività svolte dal progetto CAPTAIN, che maggiormente evidenziano l’elevato potenziale di sostenibilità di specifici output. da capitalizzare.

L’azione propositiva che indubbiamente presenta un più evidente impatto a livello regionale, interessando l’intero bacino adriatico-ionico, è rappresentata dalla costituzione dell’Osservatorio Adriatico-Ionico sul trasporto marittimo dei passeggeri, sorto dall’iniziativa dell’intero partenariato di EA SEA-WAY che ha siglato un accordo transfrontaliero per la sua realizzazione (maggio 2016). In CAPTAIN, si è dunque trattato di passare a formalizzare la sua istituzione (iter tuttora in corso) attraverso una sua strutturazione legale sotto la forma di GEIE (Gruppo europeo di interesse economico), ritenuta la forma più flessibile e snella.

Lo scopo dell’Osservatorio è volto al miglioramento della mobilità nell’area marittima adriatico-ionica attraverso la promozione della cooperazione territoriale e transfrontaliera e  lo sviluppo di un dialogo costruttivo tra i key-player di settore e anche con i policy maker dell’area, fornendo specifiche proposte su questioni legislative e tecniche. Inoltre, è obiettivo auspicato che l’Osservatorio possa svolgere la sua attività in sinergia con analoghi enti dell’area mediterranea, allo scopo di condividere e sviluppare in modo condiviso soluzioni alle tematiche affrontate.

Nello specifico, all’Osservatorio sono stati posti alcuni obbiettivi risultati di comune interesse da parte dei soggetti coinvolti, quali

•  la promozione della cooperazione territoriale e transfrontaliera per un sistema di mobilità dei passeggeri integrato e sostenibile,

•    la promozione del bacino adriatico-ionico quale area unica nell’ambito mediterraneo,

•   influenzare gli ambienti politici nazionali e regionali/locali che presentano interessi comuni, proponendo soluzioni comuni su temi specifici, anche mediante un procedimento di "attività di lobby”,

•    contribuire e sostenere i policy-maker nell’affrontare e risolvere questioni legislative, favorendo una standardizzazione delle procedure amministrative e del quadro legale,

•  provvedere alla fornitura di high-level expertise su tematiche relative al trasporto marittimo delle persone,

•    offrire un quadro statistico per l’area adriatico-ionica,

•  rappresentare il centro per la raccolta e la diffusione di esperienze acquisite e di buone pratiche relative al trasposto delle persone e alla mobilità in senso ampio,

•   la proposta di soluzioni a problemi tecnici, con la presentazione di studi scientifici, l’offerta di formazione e la condivisione di esperienze tecniche,

•    monitorare e diffondere le informazioni relative ai bandi europei.

L’Osservatorio, costituito da un numero limitato di membri fondatori corrispondente all’attuale partenariato di CAPTAIN, vede necessariamente un suo sviluppo attraverso il diretto coinvolgimento di altri soggetti del territorio, con interessi e competenze inerenti agli obbiettivi dello stesso, quali possono essere le amministrazioni pubbliche, gli ambienti accademici e di ricerca, gli enti di sviluppo, le strutture amministrative portuali, gli operatori economici di settore, ecc..

Un importante supporto all’esercizio dell’Osservatorio proviene dall'attività svolta relativa allo studio e all’implementazione dello stato del trasporto marittimo nella regione adriatico-ionica. Il lavoro, anch’esso avviato nell’ambito del progetto EA SEA-WAY da un ampio team accademico dei paesi dei Balcani occidentali, partendo dall’analisi della situazione attuale che vede una diminuzione quantitativa sia di traghetti passeggeri che di traghetti per il trasporto merci, mira attraverso modelli previsionali a definire i possibili sviluppi della mobilità dell’area, individuando le peculiarità e i fattori stimolanti, e proponendo una serie di azioni atte a re-incentivarne l’uso del trasporto marittimo, incrementandone l’efficienza e l’integrazione con altri mezzi di trasposto a favore di una effettiva intermodalità d’uso, attraverso una pianificazione dell’utilizzo delle risorse, una gerarchizzazione dei bisogni e una razionalizzazione dei processi.

Il progetto CAPTAIN coglie anche l’occasione per evidenziare come attraverso l’esecuzione di attività progettuali distinte si possa giungere in modo concreto all’implementazione della mobilità nel bacino adriatico-ionico, anche attraverso il miglioramento di strutture portuali. L’esempio specifico presentato è quello del Terminal passeggeri del Porto di Bar, in Montenegro, per il quale la combinazione di differenti interventi progettuali (ADRIMOB, quindi EA SEA-WAY) con il rispettivo finanziamento, hanno contribuito in maniera comune e coesa al suo sviluppo, sia in termini strutturali (ampliamento della banchina) che di miglioramento ed efficienza delle operazioni ai traghetti e dei servizi offerti ai viaggiatori.

Work in progress

Ancora qualche giorno... poi si riprende !

The dimensions of sustainable tourism development

1) Improving policy making in tourism

Tourism sector increasingly evidences its key role in contributing to the global economic development, positively affecting employment and industry growth dynamics, generating higher than average domestic value added. Just to illustrate the weight of tourism industry, in the OECD area it directly contributes on average 4.1% of GDP, 5.9% of employment and 21.3% of service exports to the throughput yearly results (2014 data).

Last decades led to new social conditions and demographic changes in term of mobility. Higher level of life expectance, increased welfare led to the increase of the number of persons travelling for leisure or business. International tourist arrivals surpassed 1.1 billion in 2014 (World Tourism Organization 2016 reporting data), following a 12-months resurgence in arrivals to OECD countries (6.4%), which increased at a faster rate than the EU-28 average (4.4%). On a larger time-period (2010 to 2014), OECD annual growth rate reached 4.6% while for EU28 the annual increased touched 4.0%. This is a stronger performance by OECD countries compared with the previous reporting period (2008-12), when was recorded an average annual growth in arrivals of 1.9%.

Having in mind EU leading position in world tourism as a main source and main destination of international tourist flows, and as consequence the tourism sector results as the third largest economic factor in the European Union having a wide-ranging impact on economic growth, employment and social development, a specific picture of the sector in support of this assumption will be described later on in the section dedicated to quantitative EU tourism development.

With such an effective viewpoint, It is quite apparent that tourism is considered a significant economic sector in countries around the world pushing governments to develop active and innovative policies to build a competitive, inclusive and sustainable tourism development, backing and supporting integrated strategies aimed at increasing the policy coherence and the effectiveness of public and public/private actions in close partnership in tourism economic sector both at national and local/regional level. An approach that acquires even more relevance in the context of global economic and financial crisis experienced in recent years, characterised by slow growth and high unemployment rates, forcing countries to continue to deal with the consequences and adjust to a new reality, working on the development of new solutions, tools and services that help to enhance the competitiveness of the tourism industry.

Increasing interdependence and interconnectedness across and within economies (previously underestimated), including between policy dimensions and objectives, have become a persistent characteristic of the global economy. A key aspect of this interconnectedness and complexity relates to the relationship between growth, environment and social outcomes, with a good understanding of the relationship between environmental policies and economic growth vital for policy-makers aiming to achieve greener growth (OECD, 2011). The sustainable issue becomes a priority objective in fostering innovation, economic growth and development while ensuring that natural assets continue to provide the resources and environmental services and relieving impacts of economic activity on environmental systems. The same for the stated inclusive growth aiming to improve both material and non-material living standards of a large section of the population.

The action intended to address the impact of the global economic and financial crisis led to an overall awareness of the need for policies for related policy areas, to identify solutions that uphold both economic growth and a fairer distribution of benefits, through a better governance and stronger institutions, to increase international longer time-scales regulatory co-operation and to improve international policy co-ordination, as suggested since 2010 by OECD, to effectively improve the competitiveness and sustainability of tourism by ”allowing collective action in areas where individual countries may underestimate the external effects of domestic policies and/or may face strong incentives to act alone or to free ride on other countries’ policy efforts” (OECD Tourism Papers, 2015).

In this sense, due to its cross-cutting and fragmented nature, tourism requires co-ordination of government, both horizontal and vertical, as well as private sector business involvement. Governments are committed in tourism in a variety of capacities including border security, the regulation of markets such as aviation, controlling or managing tourism attractions such as national parks, skills development and funding the development of roads and other infrastructure. While tourism services are primarily provided by micro, small and medium-sized operators (often most effectively represented by industry associations), some sectors, such as aviation and online travel agents, are dominated by multi-national businesses operating at a global scale. Unless policy makers and industry work together effectively, this complex system is unlikely to function optimally.

In June 2010, the European Commission adopted the Communication “Europe, the world's No. 1 tourist destination – a new political framework for tourism in Europe” setting out a new strategy and action plan for EU tourism. Four priorities for action were identified:

1) to stimulate competitiveness in the European tourism sector,

2) to promote the development of sustainable, responsible, and high-quality tourism,

3) to consolidate Europe's image as a collection of sustainable, high-quality destinations,

4) to maximise the potential of EU financial policies for developing tourism.

A regularly updated implementation rolling plan has been developed that outlines the major initiatives to be implemented as part of the strategy, in collaboration with public authorities, tourism associations and other public/private tourism stakeholders.

2) Tourism SMEs value chains and added value in the sustainable tourism sector favouring the development

As previously highlighted, tourism represents a significant share of the services economy representing a resilient activity with the capability to stimulate economies’ dynamics and helping in creating employment, stimulating capital markets, attracting foreign capital, both at national and local level. Even if not able to fully avoid the impacts of the global economic and  financial crisis, tourism sector nonetheless proved resilient to these shocks demonstrating wide capacity to adapt and rapidly react toward a moderate but constant recovery, adjusting to the changing market and new economic conditions. Though, to fully support and confirm the growth tendency, further implementative actions are necessary in order to ensure that policies to support tourism growth are satisfactory fitting for purpose in an increasingly inter-linked policy environment, promoting a greener and more inclusive growth.

In order to maximise the full economic potential that tourism has to offer, the OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Local Development and Tourism suggested (2015) a range of inter-linked policy challenges need to be addressed, including:

• §promoting a robust institutional framework, including greater vertical and horizontal integration;
• §promoting a policy mix supporting tourism growth and open tourism markets,
• §identifying new high value sources of growth and competitiveness in tourism, including
• § innovation, green growth, and skills,
• §addressing long-term issues, such as globalisation, demographic change, infrastructure quality and environmental degradation.

A maximisation accomplishment is even more necessary in a framework of weak economic recovery, considering that tourism can also represent a value-added sector on which can rely for the national development policies’ effort beside traditional knowledge-intensive/high intensive industry high value-added (HVA)) sectors (as for R&D), taking into account specific focus on i) inclusive growth; ii) induced small-scale business operations; iii) infrastructure development and maintenance; and iv) the promotion of cultural authenticity and assets of destinations (OECD Tourism Papers, 2015).

Tourism economic sector possesses as HVA an essential component offering potential social and environmental advantages beside the traditional economic benefits. If planned and managed with a focus on sustainability, it contributes to labour market opportunities and development (new workplaces, long-term employment, qualified workers, experience skills, higher revenues etc.), favouring increased welfare, social integration and socio-political stability, enabling ideal conditions for the development of the economic productive system (both for urban and rural areas), inducing activity increase from other sectors, attracting new capitals, creating new industries, less developed areas development, global market reach and economic diversification. Furthermore, from an environmental perspective, HVA element can contribute to the development of green technologies, while access to sustainable-made infrastructures and attractions developed for tourism purposes can have a positive impact on locals’ quality of life. In this context, tourism can play an important role in improving the attractiveness of places “to live, work and enjoy”, which in turn “promotes well-being for locals and helps to attract the educated young professionals upon which high value-added sectors increasingly depend” (Glaeser, 2010).

The impact should also support regional and local economies; benefits as employment opportunities, income inequalities reduction, investments, are direct consequences of tourism result promotion and development of activities, infrastructure and facilities to accommodate and attract domestic and international visitors also in non-urban areas and areas with low power of tourism attraction. This represents a potential spill-over for retail trade, food, lodging and accommodation services stimulus, as for transport infrastructure and services for an increased tourist traffic. Moreover, we have to consider the positive potential impact extended to surrounding areas through supply chains to meet growing demand of services and leisure.

In rural regions, tourism constitutes an important lever for economic development and growth, often articulated around local gastronomy, farming, culture (arts and crafts), and outdoor activities. It thus presents important economic benefits to rural areas and constitutes an increasingly important market segment, providing significant opportunities for rural businesses to diversify income opportunities (e.g. farm stays) and participate in local supply chains (OECD, 2015).

Tourism SMEs value chains

The tourism sector is characterised by a high level of fragmentation and heterogeneity (OECD, 2015). The sector covers a wide range of industries including accommodation, tour operators and travel agents, but also restaurants and cafés, tourism transportation, attractions, etc. Tourism value chains are often international or ‘global’ in nature, as the origin of consumers in tourism often is different from the tourism destination.

Tourism role is specifically relevant in the economic system due to its characteristics; entrepreneurship is mainly based on small and medium sized enterprises, often family-owned, allowing a  high degree of flexibility to adjust to meet the specific demand for specific goods and specialised services (including transport, accommodation, travel, additional services, new niche services, etc.) in particular period of the year, offering different proposal to different tourist and travellers budgets and spending capacity.

Tourism sector in the European Union

Tourism plays an important role in European Union because of its economic and employment potential, as well as its social and environmental implications, as tourism statistics are not only used to monitor the EU’s tourism policies but also its regional and sustainable development policies. EU Tourism sector involves Member citizens in over 1.2 billion tourism travels for personal or business purposes (EU-28, EUROSTAT estimate for 2014).

Tourism industry consists of a wide range of products and destinations and involves several different stakeholders including both public (government) and private players. To develop the tourism sector, the EC has been proactive in formulating policies to encourage competitiveness amongst the foreign players investing in the sector.

The European Union tourism sector is a major industry in EU that generates a lot of foreign revenue and contributes significantly to the EU GDP, accounting in 2014 for 3.6% of the total ratio, quantifyable in US$669.9 billion (WTTC estimate).

Following to EUROSTAT data (see Table below), in 2012, one in ten enterprises in the European non-financial business economy belonged to the tourism industries. These 2.2 million enterprises employed an estimated 12.0 million persons. Enterprises in industries with tourism related activities accounted for 9.0% of the persons employed in the whole non-financial business economy and 21.9% of persons employed in the services sector. The tourism industries' shares in total turnover and value added at factor cost were relatively lower, with the tourism industries accounting for 3.6% of the turnover and 5.5% of the value added of the non-financial business economy.

The relevance of tourism industry growth has a direct impact on the expansion of EU employment, also contributing to the creation of job conditions for economically less advantaged socio-demographic groups (women, young) or regions. Moreover, there is a general positive reaction of tourist activity as EUROSTAT, comparing 2014 regional data on tourism intensity (e.g. the annual number of nights spent by tourists per capita of local population), assessed that EU regions with high tourist activity tend to have lower unemployment rates below the national average.

On the other hand, it should be pointed out that Jobs are less stable in tourism than in the rest of the economy due to seasonality, preponderance for not permanent and part-time contracts, low earnings, etc..

Out of the over 12 million people employed in tourism activities in 2012 (see Table below), nearly 7 million work in the food and beverage industry, while 2 million are employed in transport. The accommodation sector (not including real estate) accounts for 2.4 million jobs in the EU; travel agencies and tour operators account for nearly half a million. The three industries that rely almost entirely on tourism (accommodation, travel agencies/tour operators, air transport – the so-called "selected tourism industries") employ 3.3 million people.

The EU tourism industries account for 22.0% of people employed in the services sector. When looking at the total non-financial business economy, they account for 9.0% of people employed.

In the selected tourism industries, 22.0% of people work in micro-enterprises that employ fewer than 10 people (as defined by EU Recommendation 2003/361), which is significantly lower than the 29.0% observed for the total non-financial business economy (see Table below). Looking at the three selected tourism industries separately, over one-third of employment in travel agencies and tour operators is in micro-enterprises (34.0%); for the accommodation sector this figure is 23.0%. Not surprisingly, small and medium-sized enterprises (<250 250="" 89.0="" air="" are="" companies="" employed="" employing="" importance="" in="" minor="" more.="" o:p="" of="" or="" people="" sector="" staff="" the="" transport="" with="" working="">

Although the economic crisis led to a fall in overall employment, this was not the case for the services sector, including the core tourism industries such as accommodation (which showed  an average annual growth rate of 0.9% since 2008), evidencing the tourism industry’s potential and capacity as a growth sector, even in times of economic turmoil that significantly affect other sectors of the economy.

From the tourism demand side, residents (aged 15 and above) from within the EU-28 made an estimated 1.2 billion tourism trips in 2014, for personal or business purposes. Short trips (of 1 to 3 nights) accounted for more than half (57.4 %) of the total number of trips made, while three quarters (74.9 %) of all trips made were to domestic destinations, with the remainder abroad. In some countries, more than half of all trips were made to destinations abroad. EUROSTAT estimated that some 61.1 % of the EU-28’s population travelled for personal purposes in 2012.

From the supply perspective, it is estimated that there were just over 570 thousand tourist accommodation establishments active within the EU-28 in 2014 and that together they provided nearly 31 million bed places. Nearly one third (32.2 %) of all the bed places in the EU-28 were concentrated in just two of the EU Member States, namely France and Italy.

During recent years, the number of nights spent in tourist accommodation establishments has generally shown an upward trend. EU-28 residents spent an estimated 2.6 billion nights abroad on tourism trips in 2014.

The economic importance of international tourism can be measured by looking at the ratio of international travel receipts relative to GDP; these data are from balance of payments statistics and include business travel, as well as travel for pleasure. In 2014, EUROSTAT assessed that while the EU-28 average rate of travel receipts and expenditure in balance of payments in regard to GDP was 0.8%, the state evidenced wide differentiations among the EU Member States, with the highest ratio of travel receipts to GDP in Croatia (17.2 %), Malta (14.4 %) and Cyprus (12.3 %), confirming the importance of tourism to these countries (see Table below). In absolute terms, the highest international travel receipts in 2014 were recorded in Spain (€49 billion) and France (€43.2 billion), followed by the United Kingdom, Italy and Germany (all three recording receipts of €33 to 35 billion).

Germany recorded the highest level of expenditure on international travel, totalling €70.3 billion in 2014, followed by the United Kingdom (€47.8 billion) and France (€36.7 billion). Spain was the EU Member State with the highest level of net receipts from travel in 2014 (€35.4 billion), while Germany recorded the biggest deficit (€-37.6 billion).

Ready for the Pescara EA SEA WAY 8th PCM. The last one !

(c) WG2016

At work at Ravenna EA SEA WAY PCM

(thanks Tito !)

WG (c) 2016