Sustainable Tourism Law

176 SUSTAINABLE TOURISM LAW Communication from the Commission of 19 October 2007 – Agenda for a sustainable and competitive European tourism 5 is the official launch and endorsement of an Agenda for sustainable and competitive tourism. The objectives of this Agenda were to deliver economic prosperity, social equity and cohesion, as well as environmental and cultural protection. These involve several challenges, policies and principles for the sector 6 . Challenges include: ensuring the safety of tourists and local communities; protecting the natural and cultural resources of tourist destinations; minimising resource use and pollution in tourism destinations; managing change in the best interests of the wellbeing of the community; reducing the seasonality of demand; addressing the environmental impact of transport linked to tourism; making tourism experiences accessible to all without discrimination and improving the quality of tourism jobs. The objectives of the Agenda are intended to be achieved by means of appropriate policies such as sustainable destination management (for example, through spatial and land use planning or investment decisions on infrastructure and services), the integration of sustainability concerns by businesses and raising awareness of sustainability among tourists. And to achieve competitive and Sustainable Tourism, the Commission proposed principles such as taking a holistic and integrated approach in order to ensure that tourism is well balanced and respectful of society and the environment; planning for the long term, with an eye to the needs of future generations as well as our own; or achieving an appropriate pace of development, respecting the character of tourist destinations. Despite the challenges, policies and principles for the sector reflected on some legislative instruments, such as Communication from the Commission of 19 October 2007 – Agenda for a sustainable and competitive European tourism , there is a lack of centralized European policies on tourism. 3 – And the last reason is because SustainableTourism requires absolute consensus among the nations of the world. So it needs a flexible legislative technique that gives global answers to the demands of society. The use of this flexible legislative technique was the first step for the creation of legal norms that consecrate the duties and rights in the tourist field. Bearing in 5 COM (2007) 621 final. 6 See: www.europa.eu .