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Tuesday, September 13, 2011

The co-financed tourism is doing well

Read the Special Report No 6 / 2011 on the effectiveness of tourism projects co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) of the ECA.Tourism is the third largest economic sector worldwide and the largest service industry in the European Union (EU). The industry generates more than 5 % of EU Gross Domestic Product, with approximately1.8 million businesses employing an estimated 5.2 % of the total labour force (9.7 million jobs), and even more when related sectors are taken into account. Between 2000 and 2006, € 4.6 billion in EU funds were allocated under the ERDF for physical investments in tourism. Projects are selected and managed by managing authorities in the Member States.

This European Court of Auditors’ (ECA) performance audit is based on a wide survey of projects in nine Member States encompassing 26 regions. The questions addressed by the audit were: Did the projects deliver the results expected of them? Are project results sustainable? Did the EU support influence the existence or the design of the projects?

The audit concluded that:

- All of the projects examined provided positive results in one form or another, with the majority being successful in several respects;

- The sustainability of project results was largely assured, with 98% of projects continuing to be operational at the time of the audit, and 94% of created or maintained jobs still existed at the end of the audits; and

- The EU support was instrumental in the projects being undertaken in 74% of the cases, and caused them to be modified in a further 20% of cases. 6% of the projects would have gone ahead without the EU funding.

The ECA makes a series of recommendations in its special report to enhance the use of ERDF funding. Among them are that the Commission should encourage member states’ managing authorities to ensure that suitable objectives, targets and indicators are established at the grant application and decision stages to enable the selection of projects which are likely to be the most efficient, and to serve as a basis for the subsequent evaluation of the results they deliver.

Source  Press room - European Commission

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