European Travel Commission
The European Travel Commission (ETC) is an international non-profit association representing the national tourism organizations (NTOs) in Europe and is based in Brussels.
The association aims to raise awareness of the importance of tourism among national European authorities and the general public through sharing best practices and cooperation in market intelligence and promotion.
The ETC member countries are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, and Ukraine.
ETC was established in Stalheim, Norway, during an excursion of the 1948 Congress of the International Union of Official Travel Organizations (IUOTO).
ETC became IUOTO's regional commission for Europe in line with the latter's aim “to promote, in a technical and entirely non-political manner, freedom of travel, so as to strengthen peace and mutual understanding between the nations of the world.”[1] Committed to the freedom of travel and private enterprise, the ETC did not escape the reality of the early Cold War and cultivated strong ties with the Western camp.
[4] The campaigns were realised by the ETC's New York Committee, which worked closely with marketing firms (e.g. Donald N. Martin & Company, Inc.) and private partners in the transportation, travel, and energy industries.
[7] The ETC praised Eisenhower for his strong support for international travel by Americans in the interest of rebuilding the European economies.
[12] This decision was undoubtedly related to Cold War imperatives, and in the context of the rift caused by the 1948 Tito–Stalin split, Yugoslavia's membership of ETC was a steppingstone for the country's tourism policy, which aimed to attract more Western tourists.
The creation of Operation Groups in Japan, Argentina, Canada, and Australia in the 1970s, and the ETC's increasing interest in Southeast Asian markets in the 1980s expanded ETC's geographic scope.
In 2017, ETC was designated as the official strategic partner of the European Commission for the implementation of the promotional activities in the framework of the 2018 EU-China Tourism Year.
In 2019, ETC launched a new marketing strategy, Horizon 2022, moving from a traditional geographic segmentation to a cross-market thematic promotional approach.
In 2019, ETC launched a new marketing strategy, Horizon 2022, moving from a traditional geographic segmentation to a cross-market thematic promotional approach.
Since 2012, the European Commission has entrusted ETC with yearly ad hoc grants for the implementation of a program of promotional actions aimed at bringing new visitors from targeted third countries to Europe.
In 2017, ETC was designated as the official strategic partner of the European Commission for the implementation of the promotional activities in the framework of the 2018 EU-China Tourism Year.
Since 2021, ETC has been partnering up with Eurail to organise the yearly competition to award marketing campaigns which promote train travel as a sustainable tourism model across Europe.
During past years, ETC was awarded EU funding on an ad hoc basis for the promotion of Destination Europe.
The Marketing Group is the ETC's think tank for all issues related to the promotion of Europe as a destination and a platform for sharing information and best practices.
