Opinion on enhancing connectivity, preserving cultural heritage, and driving local excellence in European tourism: destination management and regional tourism growth

6.2.2026

Ms Elissavet VozembergVrionidi

Chair

Committee on Transport and Tourism

BRUSSELS

Subject: Opinion on enhancing connectivity, preserving cultural heritage, and driving local excellence in European tourism: destination management and regional tourism growth (2025/2120(INI))

Dear Madam Chair,

Under the procedure referred to above, the Committee on Culture and Education has been asked to submit an opinion to your Committee. At a meeting of 5 November 2025, the Committee on Culture and Education Committee decided to send the opinion in the form of a letter. It considered the matter at its meeting of 27 January 2026 and adopted the opinion at that meeting. I now call on the Committee on Transport and Tourism, as the Committee responsible, to incorporate the following suggestions into its final report.

SUGGESTIONS

A. Recognises the cultural and creative sectors as pillars of sustainable growth, social cohesion and competitiveness in the European Union, with over 7.9 million people employed in cultural activities in 2024, which equals 3.8% of total employment, and includes around 1.2 million firms, of which over 99% are SMEs, representing 3.95% of EU value added;

B. Views cultural tourism, with all its various components, including sports tourism, as one of the main drivers of tourism in Europe, capable of strengthening the local economy and promoting good practices for the conservation and authentic interpretation of cultural heritage in addition to promoting Europe’s cultural diversity;

C. Highlights that mountainous, outermost, maritime, rural and remote regions offer unique landscapes, culture and traditions and that improving their connectivity is essential to enable local communities to live, work and thrive, preserving cultural excellence and identities;

D. Whereas overtourism, and other non-sustainable tourism practices, risk harming cultural heritage, inflating living costs and contributing to the housing crisis; whereas effective use of management plans, that respect local communities, contributes positively to the protection of cultural heritage, harnessing unique cultural assets sustainably and responsibly, whilst fostering innovation, competitiveness and sustainable economic growth;

1. Emphasises the need to protect all forms of cultural heritage, both tangible and intangible, recognising their crucial role as an educational resource for future generations and in promoting regional, national and European identities, cultural diversity, social cohesion, and sustainable economic development;

2. Stresses the importance of placing local communities and cultural heritage including cultural landscapes at the centre of decision-making regarding the management of all tourism activities, including cultural, sporting and wellbeing activities, in order to ensure equitable benefits for both the citizens and cultural resources;

3. Calls on Member States to launch cultural tourism campaigns that promote lesser-known destinations and underused or disadvantaged areas, to create a more balanced cultural tourism landscape that fosters bottom-up approaches in policy making, strategic planning and destination management;

4. Encourages Member States to develop flexible cultural and sustainable tourism offerings capable of responding to increasingly varied demands in terms of motivations, trends, and seasonal patterns, articulating the offering into targeted tourism sectors (gastronomy wellness, nature) through strong collaboration between the public and private sectors, and highlighting the role of cultural and sports activities as tourist attractions;

5. Emphasises the critical role of digital technologies and artificial intelligence in improving the visibility, visitor flow management, carrying capacity, accessibility, and enjoyment of cultural heritage, with particular benefit to smaller and geographically disadvantaged areas, in order to counter depopulation, desertification and to preserve wellbeing; stresses the adoption of digital and AI tools should follow a human-centric and rights-based approach;

6. Calls for investing in the digitisation of cultural content and in digital skills for cultural workers, while stressing that such tools should complement, not replace in-person cultural experiences and community-based tourism.

7. Highlights the use of digital technologies and innovative tools to support alternative cultural tourism where sites are too fragile to be visited in person;

8. Calls on Member States to fund eco-sustainable development, including transport to, from and around cultural sites, in order to ensure sustainable destination management, promote local prosperity and strengthen social cohesion in the European Union.

9. Highlights the new strategic framework called the Culture Compass, as well as the potential of Union initiatives such as DiscoverEU, European Capitals of Culture, and the European Heritage Label as valuable tools to make European cultural heritage more accessible to young people, particularly those with fewer opportunities; and encourages their meaningful inclusion in cultural and tourism governance structures;

10. Highlights the value of cultural routes and long-distance walking trails, such as the European Cultural Routes, as engines of sustainable, community-based tourism; calls for stronger European cooperation with shared sustainability standards, heritage and its protection, coordinated signage and accessibility to reinforce their role as transnational cultural bridges;

11. Calls for cultural tourism strategies that prioritise accessibility, so that all people, including persons with disabilities, can fully enjoy cultural experiences.

Yours sincerely,

Nela Riehl

ANNEX: DECLARATION OF INPUT

The rapporteur for opinion, Ms Lara Magoni, declares under her exclusive responsibility that she did not include in her opinion input from interest representatives falling within the scope of the Interinstitutional Agreement on a mandatory transparency register, or from representatives of public authorities of third countries, including their diplomatic missions and embassies, to be listed in this Annex pursuant to Article 8 of Annex I to the Rules of Procedure.