Sustainable Tourism Law

232 SUSTAINABLE TOURISM LAW and regulations so as to achieve the specific goal to protect the environment, safeguard the communities, protect visitors and guarantee market stability. Regarding what concerns the relationship between norms on tourism and the issue of environmental, economic and social sustainability, it can be stated that: (a) expanding the sustainability issue to the internal law, the national laws define the responsibility on tourism to be up to the government and their agencies; (b) the existing legislation should be reconsidered and, if necessary, reinforced to guarantee that it is adequate not only to control but also to promote sustainable tourism; (c) acting as instruments for guidance and control, legislation, regulation and licences are interconnected issues that might be conveniently used to strengthen sustainability. More generally, regarding the sustainability of tourism rights, it is interesting to analyse the role and the meaning that the draft International Convention has been designed to have and, at the same time, the degree of efficiency and efficacy that the new international discipline will be able to reach pragmatically 103 . The socio-economic scenario in which the draft Convention took place has been efficiently summarized by The Global Competitiveness Report annually published by the World Economic Forum; the Global Competitiveness Index evaluates the competitiveness of 137 economies, providing a unique interpretation of factors that determine their productivity and relative prosperity 104 . As far as the field of travel and tourism is concerned, the biannual The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum provides a thorough analysis of the competitiveness of 136 world economies, taking into account complete factors and policies that foster sustainable development on an area, and in turn, it gives a significant contribution to the social and economic 103 An example, in this sense, is represented by the report PwC, Review of consumer protection in the travel and travel related services market , prepared in November 2010 for the Australian Department of the Treasury, on behalf of the Standing Committee of Officials of Consumer Affairs (SCOCA). 104 The 2017-2018 edition, which presents a framework and a corresponding series of indicators subdivided into three main categories (subindices) and twelve policy sectors (pillars) for 137 world economies, is available at: www.weforum.org/reports/the-global-competitiveness-report-2017-2018. In the international ranking, Italy ranks in 43rd position, improving a place in the rankings and slightly increasing its score, thanks to an increase in the efficiency of the goods market (of seven places, rising to 60th), to higher education and training (two, going up to 41th). Its traditional competitive advantages include health and primary education (25th), large market size (12th), infrastructure (27th) and business capacity (25th). Despite recent reforms, labour markets (116th) and financial markets (126th) remain the main weaknesses. One of the most negative performance indicators is the 1st pillar – Institutions, with respect to which Italy is ranked in 95th place.