TOPOSOPHY AND HOTREC ENTER FIFTH YEAR OF COLLABORATION, TACKLING TOURISM'S BIGGEST CHALLENGES

The ‘voice of the hospitality industry in Europe’, HOTREC represents the interests of hotels, restaurants, bars and cafes across 30 countries. Our relationship started in 2015 with a strong focus on the growing market for short-term private accommodation rentals, one of the most strongest-performing areas of the collaborative economy.

Our report ‘Levelling the Playing Field’ was one of the first of its type and called for action by policymakers across Europe to update legislation on the collaborative economy, making the marketplace safer for consumers and fairer for all regulated hospitality businesses. Key conclusions and guidelines were also shared and discussed with key figures including Ms. Elżbieta Bieńkowska, European Commissioner for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs of the European Commission. and Mr. Taleb Rifai, then General Secretary of UNWTO, during policy workshops under the auspices of HOTREC and ETOA. 

Since that time short-term rentals through online platforms have grown at a fast pace, with an undeniable impact on the quality of life and cost of living for residents of Europe’s most popular destinations. Guidance from the EU, informed by strong voices such as HOTREC’s has helped authorities across Europe to understand the wider impact of the collaborative economy and the need for updated regulation. 

In recent times, our projects have diversified greatly including partnership building between hotel associations and various interest groups to putting forward a concise agenda about the sustainable development of tourism destinations in Europe.

In the last year alone, TOPOSOPHY has supported HOTREC by: 

• Providing HOTREC and its Members with an integrated approach to communicating key issues about short-term rentals to EU and country-based audiences

• Shedding light on the big business of meal sharing in a groundbreaking report. Home restaurants, food tours and cooking classes are fast becoming a highly dynamic segment of in-destination experiences, however there are many areas of concern for lawmakers to address

• Evaluating the phenomenon of tourism growth and highlight HOTREC’s commitment to playing a leading role in contributing to the prosperity of European destinations through the HOTREC paper on overtourism 

• Delivering webinars to members across Europe to track regulation on the collaborative economy and share best practice

Commenting on HOTREC’s work with TOPOSOPHY, HOTREC CEO Christian de Barrin said “we’re delighted that our work with  the TOPOSOPHY team has strongly contributed to changing the dynamics in the collaborative economy, and led to progress for destinations, local communities and society at large”. 

In 2019 more action on monitoring and engaging with policymakers on the collaborative economy is expected. New business models demand critical thinking and during 2019 TOPOSOPHY will support HOTREC for another year in monitoring the status of short-term rentals as facilitated by digital platforms and OTAs. Policy reports, workshops and webinars will be included among various outputs. 

TOPOSOPHY carries out bespoke trends and regulation analysis on the collaborative economy, as well as workshops and keynote presentations. If you’d like to know more about how we could support your organisation with our work, just drop us a line at info@toposophy.com.