ASPECTS OF TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT APPLIED IN ...

Annals of the University “Constantin Brâncuşi”of Tg-Jiu, No. 1/2008, Volume 2,
ISSN: 1842-4856
The last decade has been an important period in the progressive involvement of tourism in
programmes supported by the European Community. While the absence of a specific tourism
budget for direct tourism activities means that DG Enterprise's Tourism Unit is unable to provide
any funding for individual projects, numerous tourism initiatives have received support from other
EU programmes.
There are many different schemes which provide funding for suitable proposals. Sources of
possible funding for tourism projects are as follows (Ratz, 2004):
• The major funds for promoting regional, economic and social development in the Union (the
Structural Funds).
• Programmes and actions in various policy fields (e.g. environment, training, research and
development, promotion of cultural heritage). These often require co-operative efforts between
organisations in two or more Member States.
• Loans from the European Investment Bank.
The only largest source of European Union funding for tourism, in particular in the less
prosperous regions, are the Structural Funds. The support available through the Structural Funds is
essentially aimed at economic development goals. Therefore, economic and social criteria are
crucial in deciding where and how resources are allocated. In general, the Funds are targeted locally
and the operational programmes are managed by the Member States.
The Structural Funds are used in three main ways to enable the underdevelopment regions to
advance through their tourism industries:
- direct investement in tourism facilities: co-financing projects such as marinas,
conferences centres, SPAs, hotels, restaurants etc.
- investment in infrastructure directly linked to the tourism sector: co-financing
transport, communications and environmental projects which may improve the
accessibility of undeveloped regions;
- investement in projects to upgrade the cultural and historical resources of less
developed regions, making them more attreactive to potential tourists.
There are individual projects selected by regional and national bodies in each Member State
under the supervision of a joint monitoring committee in which the European Commission is
represented. The financial aid provided by the Structural Funds therefore usually reaches the user
through national or regional schemes managed by the national authorities.
Usually, this support is provided for activities that contribute to furthering the cooperation
between organisations in different Member States as well as dealing with particular issues. This
means that a tourism project could be eligible for support under a particular programme if it
involves partners from other Member States and contributes to the specific objectives of a particular
programme. In practical terms, this usually means working in international partnerships involving
participants from two or more Member States.
Besides the Structural Funds, there are others 60 EU programmes and actions which may
provide financial support to the tourism sector. One of this programmes is PHARE, establish in
1989, for the process of economic and social reform in Central and Eastern Europe. It works as nonreimbursable
grants for programmes in different fields, such as privatisation, agriculture, education
and training.
Potential applications to tourism include the financing of tourism-related studies, tourism
action plans, policy advice, technical aexpertise and training. Even if the PHARE programme was
originally set up for Polond and Hungary, it was extended in other countries, like: Bulgaria,
Romania, Czech Republic, Slovakia, the Baltic States, Albania Macedonia, FYR etc.
A renewed European tourism policy
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