Ministerstwo Sportu i Turystyki Meeting with Secretary General of ECTAA - Aktualności -

Katarzyna Sobierajska, Under Secretary of State at the Ministry of Sport and Tourism met on April 28th with the Secretary General of the European Travel Agents and Tour Operators Association (ECTAA) Michel de Blust and with representatives of the Executive Board of the Polish Tourism Organization. The meeting addressed issues of key importance for the development of tourism that ECTAA is currently working on and which will be the focus of the Association’s activities during Poland’s Presidency of the EU Council.

Issues discussed during the meeting included, among others, the question of amending EU tourism legislation, i.e. Council Directive 90/314/EEC of 13 June 1990  on package travel, package holidays and package tours and Council Directive of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax. Particular attention was drawn to the need for undertaking, in cooperation with the industry, legislative initiatives aimed at ensuring a balance between customer protection and tour operator liability, especially in the context of events of force majeure, such as volcanic ash clouds, martial law or unrest, witnessed in 2010 and 2011.

The issue of taxation law changes concerning foreign companies which occasionally act as carriers in the territory of Poland was also discussed. The changes are intended to simplify both the registration of such taxpayers and the tax procedures for them, so as to streamline the formalities they need to go trough in order to fulfil their taxpayer’s obligations. 

The participants of the meeting also raised the question of the European Commission’s Communication of 30 June 2010 “Europe, top tourist destination in the world – a new political framework for European Tourism” and of the 21 EU actions outlined in it.  In this regard, the Secretary General of ECTAA pointed out that such issues as creating conditions for a more competitive tourism sector, supporting sustainable development, simplifying visa policies, promoting Europe as a tourist destination and supporting the education and training of the sector’s human resources should be treated as priority areas.

Attention was also drawn to the fact that the Board of ECTAA will meet in Cracow in May 2012.

Under Secretary of State Katarzyna Sobierajska came up with an initiative to organize a conference on the publication of the “Code of practice for environment-oriented sustainable tourism”, a document currently being prepared by ECTAA under the EOS project. The Conference would take place during the European Tourism Forum to be held in Cracow, 5-7 October 2011, during the Polish Presidency. The Secretary General of ECTAA accepted the initiative with satisfaction and offered to support it in ECTAA’s EOS Code Project Team.

The Polish Chamber of Tourism (PCT) was represented at the meeting by President Jan Korsak, Vice-President Stanisław Piśko,  and Paweł Niewiadomski, Vice-President of PCT and Vice-President of ECTAA. Maria Napiórkowska, Director of the Tourism Department of the Ministry of Sport and Tourism, and Elżbieta Wyrwicz, Deputy Director of the Department, also participated in the meeting.