European Boating Industry (EBI) welcomes the publication of the EU Commission’s Tourism Strategy, which delivers significant progress for recreational boating and nautical tourism. It recognises the importance of boating as a key element of Europe’s tourism mix and the importance of competitiveness, sustainability and resilience. The EU will tackle the lack of mutual recognition of boating and move towards investment in modernisation of marina infrastructure as two of the key barriers identified by the sector.

The long-awaited Strategy establishes the EU Commission’s policy direction for European tourism over the coming years, setting out ten action areas covering competitiveness, sustainability, connectivity, skills, investment and cooperation. Importantly, several issues consistently raised by EBI will be tackled recognised, providing a stronger basis for growing boating and nautical tourism in Europe that will in turn support the sale of new boats.

One of the most important developments concerns the mutual recognition of recreational boating licences, a longstanding obstacle to cross-border boating in Europe. Crucially, the EU Commission identifies a concrete way forward:

“An obstacle that visitors experience when travelling by leisure boat in the EU is when recreational boating licences are not recognised across countries. The Commission will seek to harmonise this system with a proposal for a Council Decision to apply UNECE Resolution No. 40 on an International Certificate for Operators of Pleasure Craft.”

This announcement follows the EU Commission’s 2025 study examining the advantages and drawbacks of mutual recognition of recreational boating licences and the European Parliament’s support for regulatory action earlier this year. The proposed application of UNECE Resolution No. 40 would provide a simple European framework based on the International Certificate for Operators of Pleasure Craft (ICC), addressing differences in recognition between countries. For boaters, charter companies, rental companies and boat clubs, the current fragmentation creates administrative obstacles and uncertainty that is harming the sector’s growth.

The Strategy also delivers an important result for marina infrastructure, directly stating: “EU […] marinas infrastructures should be upgraded, modernised and become more sustainable.” This should cover alternative fuel infrastructure, digital management tools, circular waste solutions, eco-friendly mooring systems, and a European digital platform for berthing availability.

The document also identifies potential financial instruments to support the tourism sector and identifies the proposed EU budget for 2028–2034 as an opportunity to strengthen investment in tourism infrastructure, SMEs, innovation and sustainability.

Another critical announcement concerns the revision of VAT rules applicable to tourism for which EBI is advocating to address the unequal VAT treatment of on-water accommodation (marinas, boat charter) compared on-land accommodation.

Beyond these direct developments, the Strategy announces an EU Simplification Initiative for tourism in the first half of 2027 to identify administrative burdens affecting businesses.

The EU Commission will also establish an EU Tourism Observatory in 2027, modernise European tourism statistics and support the development of the Common European Tourism Data Space. These initiatives offer opportunities to improve the measurement and recognition of nautical tourism's economic contribution. Further actions include an EU Tourism Academy to address skills and workforce challenges.

Philip Easthill, EBI Secretary-General commented “The EU Tourism Strategy represents a significant achievement for the recreational boating industry. Longstanding demands concerning boating licence recognition, marina infrastructure investment are now explicitly reflected in the EU Commission’s policy agenda, alongside new opportunities to advance the sector’s interests. This is a real opportunity to build on Europe's position as the world's leading tourism destination, including for boating and nautical tourism.

We very much thank Executive Vice-President Raffaele Fitto and Commissioner for Sustainable Transport and Tourism Apostolos Tzitzikostas for the leadership and putting tourism high on the EU’s agenda for the years to come.”

Read the EU Sustainable Tourism Strategy here.