Sustainable Tourism Law

42 SUSTAINABLE TOURISM LAW standardization of services, and an aggregation of tourist structures. A large number of tourists today rely on uniformity rather than diversity. Uniformity is reassuring and comforting. You know what you will find when you arrive in a far, distant country. You know how your vacation will be like, in the exact moment that you arrive at a new resort belonging to a well-known chain. This is not a new concept and it is not a discovery of modern times or contemporary tourism. If you allow an historical reference, this strategy and policy goes back to roman time, two thousand years ago. It goes back to the idea of identical castra spread all over the Roman Empire, from Britannia to Syria. No matter where he was stationed, a roman legionnaire found the same structure of architecture. Even when arriving in the dark of the night, he knew exactly where to go, where to find his supper, where to sleep, where to report. This gave him serenity and confidence. He felt at home, on the Rhein border, or at the Vallum Adriani . Something similar happens to us when we arrive at a chain-hotel, or at a resort affiliated to the same brand. Or – the principle is the same – when we eat our lunch or dinner in a chain restaurant, whose trademarks we have already appreciated. Mass tourism: some economic data As is well known, in the 18th and 19th centuries tourism was reserved for the elites. The new era of mass tourism started after the Second World War, when aviation developed civilian services across the world 16 . In 1950, the statistics of theWorldTourismOrganization reported 25 million international travellers. In 1970, 166 million. In 2006 were reported 846 million international arrivals worldwide. In 2016 (the last year reported in available statistics) some 46 million more tourists (overnight visitors) travelled internationally compared to 2015: this means – according to WTO – 1.2 billion travellers. Today, according to UNWTO, tourism is one of the fastest growing socio- -economic sectors, currently accounting for an estimated 10% of world GDP, 1 in 10 jobs and 7% of global trade of goods and services. “Tourism represents a major share of trade in services (30% of world’s trade in services), has multiple 16 Commercial aviation, although active in since the early ’20, grew rapidly after World War II, converting military in to civil aircraft.