Sustainable Tourism Law

LEGAL PROTECTION OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM IN BRAZIL 425 As there is no other provision on the matter in the General Law of Tourism, the amendment above, if approved, will change this model to one linked to investment priority, which besides its regulatory norms will depend on other legal norms, which do not exist yet. CONCLUSIONS Considering the aforementioned, it can be seen that Brazilian positive law is still hesitant regarding the importance of the legal protection of tourism heritage for the sustainable development of sector activity in the country. Act n.º. 6.513, of 1977, and Decree n.º. 86,176 of 1981 regulated it and despite its flaws provided a significant gap in the legal regime at the federal level, as far as the interventionist action of the Estate over the tourist economic domain is concerned. Indeed, it demonstrated the need to legally regulate the use and occupation of land of tourist interest, as well as the compatible use of cultural and natural assets for the purpose of a specific protection. At this point resides its greatest merit, seeing as the historical news concerning the Tourist Project alone shows the harmful risk of a planning action devoid of legal mechanisms that enable its implementation and control of effectiveness. At the same time, its greatest fragility seems to lie there as well, as it only stipulates obligations for individuals, but not the drawing up and implementation of plans and programmes for the use and occupation of areas and locations of tourist interest. The mechanisms of protection provided for are also fragile, depending on the mass action of different governmental agencies from different spheres, which makes it difficult to obtain positive practical results. However, Act No. 6,513 of 1977, bypassing the imperfections contained therein, is at least a healthy instrument in the Estate’s action to regulate the basic raw material of the economic cycle of sustainable tourism. Organizing the use of tourism heritage is an essential condition to make it non-predatory and permanent, as the assets constitute the first and main source of attractiveness, without which it would stop making sense even considering the production and consumption of tourist services. For this reason, the simple repeal of the bill of law that amends the General Law of Tourism, without introducing a new complete model for the regulation of this use, seems to turn sustainable tourism into a mere declaration of intentions.