The International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) has called for EU action to improve the industry's business environment.

During the recent Euro Attractions Show (EAS) in Amsterdam, IAAPA launched a new manifesto, 'European Amusement Parks and Attractions: Driving Leisure and Tourism in Europe'.

The manifesto contains eight challenges for the sector along with solutions that the association believes will help parks and attractions to keep on growing, investing and attracting tourists to the benefit of the European economy.

These challenges were laid out to senior members of the European Parliament – including Andreas Schwab MEP, Wim van de Camp MEP and Lambert van Nistelrooij – at a meeting in Brussels on November 4, one day after the new European Commissioner for tourism, Elzbieta Bienkowska, took office.  

"From a global perspective, international tourism in Europe is falling behind other destinations," said Karen Staley, vice-president of IAAPA Europe.

"When politicians think leisure and tourism they need to think amusement parks and attractions because our members are attracting record-breaking numbers of visitors and in turn jobs and investment for Europe."

According to Staley, amusement parks and attractions deliver nearly 150 million visitors per year which are responsible for around €10bn ($12.5bn) of direct and indirect economic benefit to Europe.

However, IAAPA Europe believes that this performance could be bettered if the business environment could be improved.

"As our sector looks forward to the next five years we see that in several areas there is still work to be done if our members are to have the best conditions for growth," Staley said.     

One of these challenges highlighted by IAAPA is the rate of VAT applied to amusement parks, which has risen by more than 20% since 2007 (from 12.7% to 15.3%) compared to only an 8% increase in the standard rate of VAT.

In his presentation, Pelle Johannisson, senior advisor to the Liseberg Group in Sweden, said: "Research conducted by IAAPA Europe, shows that reduced rates of VAT for amusement parks is a win-win for governments as well as amusement parks and attractions. They have a positive impact on jobs, investment as well as on the overall tax take."

The most important point on the agenda remains the issue of safety in the sector. Miikka Seppälä, CEO of Särkänniemi, Finland, made a plea for governments to raise the standards from 2004.

"The safety of our guests is our number one priority and we want it to be the number one priority for politicians too," Seppälä said. "The industry in Europe is well ahead of the existing EN standard so we need Europe to commit to bringing its own standards up to our level."