Sustainable Tourism Law

THE PRINCIPLES OF TOURISM LAW AS A BASIS FOR SUSTAINABLE TOURISM 473 So, only in our society are there universal conditions for tourism. If that is the case, then tourism does not come from decisions. There are many factors that contribute to the motivation that will later lead to the activity of tourism. It is always about factors that exist in social communication, but they always stop in front of the threshold that we can call representation of the future. The touristic expectation is a representation of the future. No one questions the relevance of all other communication factors, such as information, fashion, stories, advertising and the desire to imitate, among others. But, the most relevant behaviour is this form of representation of the future. For example, the Chinese market. A Chinese individual can be represented at this moment, spending a happy moment in Cancun, that is, in the present future. Therefore, his expectation should be met, not when he is in Cancun, but at this moment, in which he represents himself as happy, which is the same as the satisfaction of the expectation. Currently, the tourism industry, supported by market research, uses this mechanism of representation of the future partially, as they consider the satisfaction of expectations sacred. However, the problem is that tourists expect to see their expectations satisfied. That is, the Chinese individual who is used as an example builds the future through trust; the movements, travel, consumption and overnight stays occur because of trust. To finish this idea, it can be concluded that there is a paradox in what concerns tourism. It has been treated here as a construct of social communication, although scholars of this subject affirm that tourism is linked with rest, with the beauty of nature, with fashion. In reality, as it has been stated, tourism is the construct of communication in today’s society. If the above is true, then we must consider that the function of the Law is not the function that is generally attributed to it. The specific function of the Law is to produce regulations based on it. This way, the Law immunizes society against the threats that come from its environment. This immunization occurs because the Law allows science to operate according to its own mechanisms, the economy to operate according to its own mechanisms, just as it does in each social subsystem. In other words, the Law enables the normal functioning of social systems, enables the operation of tourism. The Law is a system that generalizes behavioural expectations to which it confers the character of normative expectations 3 . This definition entails that if an expectation is not met, the person 3 In the sense of the elements raised and widely discussed by Luhmann. See Law as a Social System (PDF Download Available) . Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/200026833_Law_as_a_Social_ System [accessed Dec 03 2017].