Tourism, the audiovisual sector, cultural heritage, local cultural development and sports have good prospects of expansion. It is a fact, the growing interest of Europeans in general and Spanish in particular, in rural, monumental, cultural, congresses, and nature tourism. New activities arise as sport, spa, equestrian and spiritual tourism. For example, the Barcelona Culture & Leisure programme it was created to enhance its position as a cultural destination and to reap the benefits of the city’s excellent cultural and recreational offering, geared to visitors.

Background

As a result of the new individual and collective needs, and new demands to certain socioeconomic and environmental problems, the Commission of the European Communities, submitted to the European Council in 1993, the White Paper “Growth, competitiveness, employment”. It provided an answer to the new needs of European societies: communication networks within companies, widespread teleworking, widespread access to scientific and leisure database, development of preventive health care and home medicine for the elderly.

After the survey conducted in 1994 in the European Union, seventeen fields where jobs could be created had been identified in all the Member States. This expansion general arises from changing patterns of behavior in households and lively demand for specific services. The next step was to promote the idea of local development and employment initiatives, the cross-roads between job creation, enterprise creation and local development. Depending on the area concerned LDEI distinct between: collective utility services, leisure and cultural services, and certain services for everyday life.

Sources of information:

(PDF) Growth, competitiveness, employment. (Commission of the European Communities, 1993).

(PDF) Local development and employment initiatives. (European Commission, 1996).

Post written by Carmen Rafecas.