Tourism Law in Europe
management and promotion of the sector. Likewise, it assumes the competences of the Tourist Regions, resulting in a centralisation process, from which only the Autonomous Regions of Madeira and Azores are excluded, as they maintained their structure. Finally, we cannot forget that, since 2007, Portugal has had the National Strategic Tourism Plan (PENT), which plans tourism policy from a global perspective at the state level, something diametrically different from what happens in Spain, where each Autonomous Community approves its tourism plan and the State – through Tourespaña – limits itself to promoting tourism abroad. Consequently, on a first approach and without prejudice of the recommendations of lege ferenda that we make at the end of our study, we can assess at this point that the Spanish and Portuguese conceptions of the distribution of competences in tourism are diametrically opposed: Spain applies a determined decentralisation, while Portugal defends centralisation; in Spain the regulatory competence of tourism is autonomous, while in Portugal it belongs to the state; seventeen different regulations for each subject and sub-subject of tourism coexist in Spain, while Portugal has only one 10 . Personally, we are in favour of a unitary regulation, which provides legal certainty to tour operators. Only with very specific features is an exception to the general rule justified, becoming admissible in that case within the principle of objectivity and proportionality. We will return to this matter later. II.3. Other European Legal Systems Although our analysis proposes a transnational model regarding the regulation of tourism based on the Spanish and Portuguese approaches, it is worth observing how other European states regulate the matter of tourism, such as France and Italy. 10 CEBALLOS MARTÍN, M. M. La regulación jurídica de los establecimientos hoteleros , Marcial Pons, Madrid, 2002. CEBALLOS MARTÍN, M. M. & PÉREZ GUERRA, R. “Reflexiones sobre el régimen jurídico administrativo de las competencias en materia de turismo y de otros títulos que pueden incidir sobre el mismo”, Revista Internacional Papers de Turisme no. 19, 1995. By the same authors, “A vueltas sobre el régimen jurídico- administrativo de la distribución de competencias en materia de turismo y de otros títulos que inciden directamente sobre el mismo: El ejercicio de las competencias turísticas por la Comunidad Autónoma de Andalucía” Revista Andaluza de Administración Pública no. 27, 1996.
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