Editor's note: This is an excerpt from Antonio Tajani's speech in Italian at the European Tourism Forum in Malta last year.

As you may know, Europe is the world's leading tourist destination in terms of both outgoing tourists and incoming visitors and the aim today is to keep it that way.

Tourism plays an important role in our economy. It comprises 1.8 million enterprises, many of which are small- and medium-sized businesses. It is also estimated to contribute to more than 5 percent of European GDP and provide jobs for about 10 million people.

To continue its growth rate, Europe had to come up with its own brand in the first place. The added value of a "Brand Europe" will complement regional and national promotional activities, strengthen Europe's image abroad and encourage cooperation between European Union member states, such as cultural routes in the field of tourism.

Also, Europe's tourism industry should look to promising emerging markets, such as Brazil, Russia, India and China, as these markets can offer an opportunity for Europe to maintain its growth rate as the tourism industry can play a role in alleviating the effects of the crisis.

Figures released by the European Commission show that arrivals have increased rapidly from countries such as Brazil, China and Russia - by 46 percent, 19 percent and 18 percent, respectively - last year compared to the same period in 2009.

In order to seize the opportunities of new markets and strengthen its leading position, Europe must prove that it can combine high quality with sustainability.

Another trend I want to illustrate is that visitors from Asia have taken up 38 percent of the total arrivals. However, the most significant forecast is for the next decade where Asian tourism will increase by 47 percent, according to research by the European Travel Commission.

In other words, one in every two tourists coming into Europe in 2020 will be Asian. This poses a great challenge for us all in the EU if we want to attract those tourists.

European destinations face increasing competition from global destinations. On the other hand, Europe can also attract visitors from emerging markets that will be a revolution for our industrial operators.

We need to understand the needs to be able to communicate with our visitors, not just in the usual main languages such as French and English - but also in other main languages such as Russian and Chinese - and focus more on training employees to handle overseas visitors with different needs and expectations than those that we are used to.

In the face of competition we have to change our way of doing things.

First of all, Europe had to tackle the seasonality problem and work on making the tourism season open all year round rather than having seasons. The changes I want to bring about are intended to create jobs and widen the economic opportunities for all.

Second, we will take advantage of events such as the London Olympics in 2012 and the Expo in Milan in 2015, as these would help attract more people.

Chinese tourists who come to London for a sport event should be encouraged to continue their discovery across the English Channel to France, Germany or Spain.

Last but not least, one important measurement is to facilitate visas. As China has become a particular interest with about 50 million tourists now around the world (which is expected to be doubled over the next five years) the commission intends to improve cooperation with China, in particular on visas.

The effective solution is to help organized group trips by issuing a single visa to a group leader, who would be responsible for the travelers on his or her list.

The author is vice-president of the European Commission, responsible for industry, space and tourism.