Leaseurope to discuss automotive rental at the European Tourism Convention

In April 2020, while still at the earliest stage of addressing the COVID-19 pandemic at EU level, Commissioner Breton announced urgent measures to support the tourism sector were needed while also ensuring its resilience for the future. The European Commission’s work to support the tourism ecosystem will look at both funding and reforming the sector, accelerating a long-awaited restructuring. Commissioner Breton recognised that sustainable tourism should be at the core of the European Green Deal (e.g. promoting proximity tourism). Digitalisation is also recognised by him as an enabler of tourism, with a new regulatory framework to be set by the upcoming Digital Services Act.

Leaseurope has been engaging with the European Commission on these topics, both as a representative of the automotive rental and leasing sector, and as a member of the Tourism Manifesto alliance.

In May 2020 the European Commission released the EU’s Travel and Tourism package in response to COVID-19, with the goal of safely easing travel restrictions. Following Leaseurope’s engagement with Breton’s Cabinet, their communication on the topic stated that once such protocols are effectively applied for some modes of transport (specifically mentioning car rental), travel restrictions could be lifted in view of planning holiday travel.

European Commission communication

The European Commission recognises the importance of the tourism ecosystem and plans to provide funding for this sector as soon as possible. As part of their work, they have organized a European Tourism Convention which will take place on 12 October 2020. Leaseurope has been invited to speak at this convention and will be highlighting the points below during our intervention:

• The European automotive leasing and rental industries provide safe mobility and connectivity for over 120 million tourists annually, purchasing approximately 46% of all vehicles registered in the EU to provide these services.
• As a mobility industry, we believe that seamless integrated cross border multi-modal transport lies at the heart of ensuring Europe can remain one of world’s key tourist destinations in a sustainable manner – the lowest carbon footprint possible, and allowing tourists to sustainably reach both popular and more remote tourist locations.
• A supportive regulatory and funding framework will be necessary to convert the leasing and rental fleets to low-emission vehicles and put in place the necessary infrastructure.
• There are a number of national and European legislative barriers in place that make it difficult to reach our sustainable mobility goal, especially when it comes to cross border travel. The development of new mobility concepts also hinges upon having fair access to data, both from vehicles as well as public authorities.

While the Covid-19 pandemic has created substantial challenges for the tourism sector, it can also be viewed as an opportunity for reform, and to finally address these issues.