Tourism is the third largest industry in the EU, and vital for employment, economic growth and regional development. Despite the impact of the economic crisis, tourism has benefited from growing numbers of visitors in recent years. Nonetheless, as this briefing shows, the industry faces a number of challenges, not least growing competition from destinations outside Europe. Although the European Commission has presented two communications on tourism in the past decade, EU competence in the field is shared with Member States, and tourism policy remains essentially at national level.Source: © European Union - EP