Foreword: The smarter way to travel

EU Commissioner for Home Affairs, Cecilia Malmström, discusses the EU’s Smart Border Package The EU is experiencing an ever-increasing travel flow across its external borders. In the year 2011, there was an estimated 645.5 million crossings of the Schengen area’s external borders, and there are no signs that this increase is slowing down.

As one of the world’s most attractive destinations for tourism, as well as an important destination for business travellers, workers, researchers and students, an even larger volume of travellers is expected in the future. For air travel alone, the number of travellers in the EU is expected to rise by 80 per cent – from 400 million in 2009 to 720 million in 2030. The economic importance of these travellers’ movements is enormous. It is estimated that in 2011 they contributed over €270 billion to the EU’s economy.

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