Sustainable Tourism Law

EVOLUTION OF SUSTAINABILITY IN THE EUROPEAN UNION TOURISM POLICY 115 cultural offer, accessibility, signage, etc. In short, tourists are more experienced and much more demanding in terms of the quality of the product (MELGOSA, 2006). To achieve a policy of sustainable development, it is necessary to establish international, national and regional targets that integrate development and conservation. The integration of the environment in all sector policies is the basic condition to achieve a sustainable development model. To do so, the International Community agreed in the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, held in Rio de Janeiro (1992), that each State, Region and Local Entity on planet Earth should elaborate their own Sustainable Development Strategy. To follow through on this agreement, the EU and the tourism administrations of the member states have included the environment variable as one of the core elements of their policies. In April 1995, the Charter on Sustainable Tourism was adopted at the World Conference on Sustainable Tourism, held on 27-28 April, in Lanzarote. The UNWTO believes that sustainable tourism development responds to the needs of current tourists and host regions, protecting and expanding the opportunities for the future. Sustainable tourism development is represented as a guideline for all resources, so that economic, social and aesthetic needs may be met by maintaining cultural integrity, essential ecological processes, biological diversity and defending living systems. For its part, the United Nations has declared year 2017 as “ International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development ” and, in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals, this statement shall encourage a change in policies, business practices and consumer behaviour, aiming to achieve a more sustainable tourism sector. Note that the 2030 Agenda is in force since January 1, 2016. When the founding Treaties of the European Communities were drafted (ECSC in 1951, EEC and EURATON in 1957), tourism was not a relevant activity in the signatory countries, excluding Italy and France. That is why tourism was not included among the Community’ s own policies. Drafters of the Treaties were not able to foresee the boom tourism would have a few years later. With the inclusion of Greece (1981), Spain and Portugal (1986), the interest in this phenomenon increased significantly, but without giving primary importance to it. The only mention, according to CICCONE, is found in Annex III of the Treaty, referring to the free movement of capital, where tourism was classified among the “invisible transactions”. Article 106.3 of the Treaty of Rome foresaw the payment release of these transactions concerning tourism.