The EU's first Sustainable Tourism Strategy: what it actually means for travellers

Commissioner Tzitzikostas's long-promised strategy is nearly here, and the European Parliament's transport committee has already told the Commission exactly what it wants inside. Here is what is real, what is still coming, and why it matters if you are planning a trip to Europe.

Where this came from

The EU has been circling the idea of a formal tourism strategy for years. In February 2022 the European Commission published the **Transition Pathway for Tourism**, a co-created roadmap that identified 27 areas of action for greening and digitalising the sector. It was built through 30-plus workshops with industry, regional governments and civil-society groups. By December 2022 the Council of the EU had turned it into the **EU Agenda for Tourism 2030**, a multi-annual work plan. Both documents acknowledged the core tension: Europe is the world's top tourist destination, attracting over 582 million international visitors a year, but the benefits are extraordinarily uneven. A handful of cities and coastlines absorb the crowds. Most of the continent sees relatively little.

The missing piece was a single, binding-direction strategy from the Commission. That is the kind of document that forces member states to align and unlocks EU funding streams, and that gives Destination Management Organisations across the continent a shared framework. It is now in preparation.

What happened at ITB Berlin

On 3 March 2026, Commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas delivered a video address to ITB Berlin titled *"Shaping the future of EU tourism: the EU's first Strategy for Sustainable Tourism."* Tzitzikostas is the EU Commissioner for Sustainable Transport and Tourism in the second von der Leyen Commission, confirmed by the European Parliament in late 2024, and the first person ever to hold a combined transport-and-tourism portfolio at EU level.

He was unambiguous: *"Later this spring, I will present Europe's first-ever Strategy for Tourism."* The strategy had not yet been formally published at the time of that speech (or at the time of writing), but its direction was laid out in considerable detail. Four pillars emerged clearly from the address and from the broader consultation process:

1. **Reducing the environmental footprint:** emissions cuts, resource efficiency, and destination resilience to climate change, backed by at least €2.9 billion from EU programmes through the Sustainable Transport Investment Plan. 2. **Shifting from volume to value:** managing tourist flows actively, using data and AI-driven tools, rather than simply maximising arrivals. 3. **Better connectivity for lesser-visited areas:** expanding high-speed rail, fixing cross-border rail ticketing (legislation expected later in 2026), and improving air-to-rail connections at 40 leading European airports. 4. **A Common European Data Space for Tourism:** a shared digital infrastructure to help destinations understand and respond to visitor flows in real time.

The strategy's formal publication date has not been confirmed as of 31 May 2026. The Commission has indicated "later this spring/Q2 2026." **(This article will be updated when the strategy document is published.)**

What the European Parliament is pushing for

Two weeks after ITB Berlin, on 18 March 2026, the European Parliament's Transport and Tourism (TRAN) committee adopted a resolution on sustainable tourism by 33 votes in favour, four against, and four abstentions. The rapporteur was MEP Daniel Attard (S&D, Malta).

The committee's key finding: **80% of travellers visit only 10% of global destinations.** That concentration is not an accident. It is the product of decades of infrastructure investment, marketing spend, and low-cost-airline route maps that all pointed at the same places. The resolution calls on the Commission to explicitly address this in the strategy by redirecting visitors toward *"lesser-known, emerging or remote destinations — rural heartlands, mountains and remote regions."*

Specific measures the TRAN committee has called for:

- A dedicated support mechanism to improve air, sea and land connectivity to emerging destinations - Expanded cross-border night train services - A rapid rollout of seamless integrated ticketing across rail, air and maritime services - A new EU framework for short-term rentals (applying from 20 May 2026 under new EU rules), including powers for local authorities to cap visitor nights or introduce authorisation schemes - An EU Tourism Skills Card to help workers move between member states - Possible creation of an EU Tourism Academy for green and digital upskilling

The resolution is non-binding; it now goes to a full Parliament vote, expected during the April 2026 plenary session. But it signals political consensus on the direction the Commission's strategy should take.

What this means if you are planning a trip

None of this changes your holiday plans overnight. EU strategies move slowly from paper to practice. But the trajectory is clear, and for travellers who already lean toward slower, quieter travel, the policy environment is shifting in the same direction.

**More support for lesser-visited regions.** The strategy is expected to include specific funding and connectivity improvements for destinations that currently struggle to attract visitors. The explicit targets are rural areas and mountain communities, plus coastal regions outside the main summer hotspots. Over the next two to three years, that should translate into better train connections and more visible destination marketing at EU level, and potentially into direct grants to regional Destination Management Organisations.

**Train-first becomes official EU policy.** Tzitzikostas was explicit at ITB Berlin: *"High-speed rail should become the backbone of sustainable travel in Europe — less time travelling, more time experiencing."* Legislation on cross-border rail ticketing is due later in 2026. The aim is to make it meaningfully easier to book a multi-operator, multi-country train journey in one transaction. That is still remarkably difficult today.

**Off-season and off-peak travel will get a gentle institutional push.** The strategy flags data-driven demand management as a core tool. In practice, this means destinations will have better tools to forecast when they are approaching capacity, and the EU-level framing gives local authorities political cover for eco-taxes and seasonal pricing, or for access management that spreads visitors across the calendar. Barcelona, Amsterdam and Venice have already moved in this direction independently; the strategy normalises and potentially funds it.

**Short-term rentals will face tighter oversight.** The new EU short-term rental rules took effect on 20 May 2026. The TRAN committee wants them strengthened further. For travellers, this is background noise in the short term. For the cities they visit, it is significant: tighter rules are linked directly to housing availability for residents, and places that feel liveable to locals tend to feel better to visit.

**Your data will be part of how destinations manage themselves.** The European Tourism Data Space is real infrastructure, not just a policy aspiration. It combines anonymised mobility data with accommodation occupancy figures and transport network usage to give destination managers a live picture of where people are and where capacity exists. Used well, this is what shifts visitors from a street that is visibly overwhelmed to a street two blocks away with excellent restaurants and no queue.

The bottom line

Europe is, for the first time, trying to manage tourism as a system, not just promote it. The Commission's forthcoming strategy and the TRAN committee's resolution point in the same direction, and so does the rail connectivity legislation expected later this year: more investment in the places that have room to grow, more friction for the places that are full, and better tools to connect people with both.

For travellers who want to go where the crowds are not, the EU is, slowly, starting to build the infrastructure that makes that easier.

*Editorial standards: this article contains no commercial relationships or affiliate links. All claims are sourced below. The strategy document itself had not been formally published as of 31 May 2026; this article will be updated when it is.*

- *[Commissioner Tzitzikostas — video address at ITB Berlin, 3 March 2026 (European Commission)](https://commission.europa.eu/news-and-media/news/commissioner-tzitzikostas-delivers-video-address-shaping-future-eu-tourism-eus-first-strategy-2026-03-03_en)* - *[MEPs advocate for smart management of tourism — EP TRAN committee press release, 18 March 2026 (European Parliament)](https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20260316IPR38220/meps-advocate-for-smart-management-of-tourism)* - *[Transition Pathway for Tourism, published 4 February 2022 (European Commission)](https://single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu/news/transition-pathway-tourism-published-today-2022-02-04_en)* - *[EU Agenda for Tourism 2030, adopted December 2022 (DG MOVE)](https://transport.ec.europa.eu/tourism/transition-eu-tourism_en)* - *[EU Tourism Platform — Help Shape the EU's 2026 Sustainable Tourism Strategy](https://transition-pathways.europa.eu/tourism/news/help-shape-eus-2026-sustainable-tourism-strategy)* - *[Apostolos Tzitzikostas — Commissioner for Sustainable Transport and Tourism (European Commission)](https://commission.europa.eu/about/organisation/college-commissioners/apostolos-tzitzikostas_en)*