EuroGtes European Federation of Farm and Village Tourism

1
EuroGîtesEuropean Federation of Farm- and
Village Tourism
Countryside Tourism in Europe A sleeping Giant
EuroGîtes Presentation 2005
2
What is EuroGites?

• European Federation of representative provider
  organisations in Farm and Village Tourism in
  geographical Europe

3
What do we represent?

• Country Tourism
• Farm-Accommodation
• Accommodation in private homes in rural areas
• Either BB or Self-Catering units
• Traditional Rural Gastronomy
• Activities related to the accommodation

4
Member organisations from
Austria Belgium (Wallonie Flanders) Bulgaria Cro
atia Cyprus Czech Republic France
Georgia Greece Hungary Latvia Luxemburg Poland Po
rtugal Romania Serbia Slovenia Slovakia Spain
(2) Switzerland Ukraine (2) United Kingdom
5
Some figures in Europe

• Associated to EuroGites
• gt 170.000 accommodation units
• gt 1.800.000 bedplaces (13 the total capacity of
  Spain as second most important tourism
  destination in Europe)
• 500.000 direct or indirect jobs
• Generates gt 37.000 million EUR in revenue for
  rural areas

6
And ...

• Overall Rural Tourism in Europe
• More than twice the above figures
• gt 80.000 million EUR revenue
• Equal to ½ the GNP of Poland
• Twice the tourism production of France (first in
  Europe)
• Revenue reverts almost entirely to the local
  rural economy

7
Our Structure

• Annual General Assembly (one vote per member
  organisation)
• Elects for two years the Management Committee
  (one representative per country)
• ? elects the Executive Committee seven
  members
• President Mr. Klaus Ehrlich (ES)
• Vice-President Mr. Hans Embacher (AT)
• Mrs. Asnate Ziemele (LV)
• Other members Mr. Nigel Embry (UK)
• Mr. Jovan Popescu (YU)
• Mrs. Marilena Stoian (RO)
• Treasurer Mr. Patrick Bouron (FR)

8
Our activities -1

• Professional Coverage
• Recognized European Lobby for Country and Farm
  Tourism
• Member of the Sustainabel Tourism Workgroup for
  Agenda 21 (DG Enterprise)
• Member of the Advisory Committee on Rural
  Development (DG Agriculture)
• Professional exchange and pool of experts
• Training and practice exchange
• Long-haul discussion processes (branding, quality
  standards, ... )
• Information Networks
• Distribution of Newsletters from European and
  International Organisations (ETIN, MER, DGs at EU
  / EC, WTO, ... )
• Internal Roundletters and pinboard about relevant
  events
• Data about Market Trends, customers behaviour
  and demand
• Web-Forum on Rural and Farm Tourism (open and
  restricted areas)

9
Example Results of Investigation Client
expectation profiles
10
Our activities -2

• Promotion
• Common promotional webpage at www.eurogites.org
  that links to individual member pages
• Link exchange amongst members (improves position
  in search engines)
• Annual flyer image brochure for distribution at
  fairs....
• Professional cooperation between members
• Expert and speaker interchange at events
• Members have special conditions at professional
  events
• Visit colleagues in other countries
• Worldwide cooperation

11
Promotion 1www.eurogites.org
12
Promotion -2 www.eurogites.org
13
Request statistics at website www.eurogites.org

• Since creation in 7/03, gt162.000 visits
• medium 210 visits/day
• in February 2005 (1-2 to 28-2) 450 visits/day
• requests per country received at the Eurogites
  office, see beside

14
Promotion flyer 2005
15
Events 2003/4

• European Workshop on Quality (Munich, May 2003)
• 1st European Congress on Rural Tourism (Jaén,
  Oct. 2003)
• International Workshop on Quality, Training,
  IT, and Environment (Latvia, June 2004)
• Ágora Tierra Adentro 2004 International
  Seminar on Common Product Criteria and Quality
  Standards (Jaén, October 2004)
• International WTO-Seminar on Rural Tourism
  (Romania, October 2004)

16
Events 2005

• 2nd European Congress on Rural Tourism
  (Crimea/UA, 26-28/september/2005)
• Image Flyer 2005 (distribution ITB 2005)
• Round-Table Administrative and Tax Regulation
  for Rural Tourism in Europe (Grüne Woche
  Berlin, Jan. 2005)
• European Action-Week Experience Europe in the
  countryside (7 15/october/2005)
• European Documentation Center on Rural Tourism
• Web-Forum on Rural Tourism in Europe (under
  construction)

17
How to contact us

• Office Adress
• EuroGîtes Federación Europea de Turismo Rural
• Apartado 2035
• E 04080 Almería
• Email requests_at_eurogites.org
• WEB www.eurogites.org
• Contact person
• D. Klaus Ehrlich President
• Tfno. 34 656 900 371
• Email president_at_eurogites.org