Tourism Law in Europe

3 and second world wars, blocked the hotel business for only a few years, which then resumed its vigorous development 7 . For a long time in Italy tourism sector was identified with hospitality. Offering accommodation for free or for remuneration purposes is an ancient activity and the first laws on hospitality are just as ancient 8 . Hotelier has always offered accommodation and contextual protection to the traveler, who risks leaving home to reach unknown places, of which he does not know the dangers 9 . Accommodation, therefore, has always represented the tourism sector. It is no coincidence, in fact, that when the Constitution of the Italian Republic came into force on January 1, 1948, article 117, in listing the matters of concurrent legislative competence between the State and the Regions, inserted "tourism and hotel industry”, and not “tourism” alone, with an almost overlapping of one on the other. Similar fate for the tourist enterprise, which, kept separate from other enterprises, for decades has been legally identified in the only accommodation companies and travel agencies. The Tourism Framework Law, Law 217 of 17 May 1983 (now repealed), in fact, in Article 5 defined as tourist enterprises those that carry out the management of accommodation facilities and related tourist services and obliged owners or managers of these companies to register in a special section of the business register established pursuant to law no. 426 of 11 June 1971 10 . It was only in 2001, with Law 135 of March 2001, reforming Law 217/1983, that there was a new definition of tourist enterprise, which ultimately leaves out only accommodation and marks the end of the separate register 11 . 7 Source: Ottavo rapporto sul sistema alberghiero e turistico ricettivo in Italia (Eight report on the hotel and tourist accommodation system in Italy) , cit., p. 45. 8 We have already mentioned the activity in R.D. 18 June 1931, n. 773: Approval of the consolidated text of public safety laws, which provides for the transmission of data of accommodated customers. Even earlier, in the civil code of 1865, articles 1866, 1867 and 1868 established a responsibility of the hotelier and host for the goods that the traveler brought with him. For a historical reconstruction of hospitality phenomenon, see M.E. La Torre, I contratti di ospitalità (Hospitality contracts) , in F. Delfini & F. Morandi (ed.), I contratti del turismo dello sport e della cultura (Contracts for tourism, sport and culture) , p. 33 et seq . 9 Benatti, Osservazioni in tema di “doveri di protezione” (Comments on “protective duties) , in Riv. trim. dir. e proc. Civ. 1960, p. 1342, says that these are obligations “aimed at preventing or removing damage from the sphere of interests of the other party”. 10 The same law 217/83 in Article 9 also qualifies travel agencies as tourism businesses. 11 Law 135 of 2001, art. 7, paragraph 1: Tourist enterprises are those that carry out economic activities, organized for production, marketing, intermediation and management of products, services, including