European Tourism President: The Continent And Travelers Have Changed
by Harvey Chipkin /Peter de Wilde, president of the European Travel Commission, addressed the “elephant in the room” of terrorism at an ETC event here last night that was focused on the Continent’s culinary and cultural attractions. Arrivals to Europe are up this year overall, but Paris and Brussels still are suffering, he said.
De Wilde, who is CEO of the Flanders Tourist Office, said, “It is not business as usual in Europe. There is a change in the environment.” But he continued, “Traveling is now about putting yourself in a place of uncertainties. But isn’t that why we travel?”
The enemy is not terrorism or Brexit but narrow-mindedness, he said—and “travel is the way to fight narrow-mindedness.”