25 January 2022: ERA has joined the initiative launched by DG GROW of the European Commission to support the skills of the tourism ecosystem. This support illustrates ERA’s growing engagement with the tourism industry to join forces and stress the tremendous challenges this industry is facing because of the COVID-19 crisis. ERA believes regional aviation is a key player in enhancing tourism and economic development.

Following the High-Level Roundtable on skills for the tourism ecosystem [1] held in October 2020 and stakeholder meetings held in 2021, the European Commission (DG GROW) will launch the EU Pact for Skills for the tourism ecosystem on 27 January 2022.

ERA, together with 28+ organisations, support the initiative and intends to participate with the implementation of the commitments and actions agreed in the Pact for Skills in the tourism ecosystem.

The objectives of the Pact for Skills are to establish a skills partnership for the tourism ecosystem with the aim of upskilling and reskilling the European tourism sector workforce.

Organisations supporting the Pact for Skills for the tourism sector agree to these actions, which would then be implemented on the ground through local or regional skills partnerships, bringing together local SMEs, VET providers and regional or national authorities.

With regards to regional aviation, we see that many pilots are coming back after furlough or otherwise looking for part-time work. We fear there will be a skills shortage, with significant experience having left the industry in the past two years and not the same pipeline of talent coming through as previously. An industry that has been impacted as hard as aviation is always going to struggle in the short/medium term to demonstrate long-term job security.