Tourism Law in Europe

We consider that the UNWTO is an ideal vehicle to promote this uniformity of tourism legislation, mainly in those institutions with a clearer cross-border vocation, as is the case of international tourism contracting 16 : the determination of the applicable national standard, the relevant jurisdictional forum, the deadlines for filing claims and so on are essential procedural elements to avoid the existence of dissuasive elements in the flow of tourists or in tourist activities in general. We do not pretend that the UNWTO possesses regulatory powers, but it could formulate and publish recommendations in the form of soft law to be taken into account by the Member States, so that they would have an informative influence and, over time, be integrated into the internal regulations. By implementing this, a supra-state regulation on tourismwould progressively be formed, which would end the divergences between state regulations, the conflicts between regulations, the perennial exceptions of sectoral legislation (protection of consumers and users, environment, spatial planning and urban planning, etc.) and, in any case, it would contribute to the legal security of tour operators in their commercial relations. III.2. European Union Everything we have been saying about the UNWTO can be stated – perhaps with a greater emphasis, seeing as it is a regional organisation – about the European Union. It is incomprehensible how little attention the European Union devotes to tourism, since it constitutes an economic sector of the first order and is of absolutely strategic importance. It was precisely the economic matter that articulated the creation of the three international organisations through the Treaties of 1951 and 1957, despite the resistance of the states to giving up on matters that affect sovereignty. For this reason, it is dispiriting seeing how, even today, despite all the available macro data on tourism (percentage of the gross domestic product of the states, percentage of employees in tourism over the total workforce, creation of indirect jobs, among others), the European Union has failed to invest on a community tourism policy. It could promote 16 AIGE MUT, M. B. “Análisis de la competencia judicial internacional en la contratación turística online: especial referencia a la Sentencia del Tribunal de Justicia de la Unión Europea de 14 de noviembre de 2013”, Revista General de Derecho Procesal , ISSN-e 1696-9642, no. 36, 2015.