Tourism Law in Europe

13 bodies for actions that serve to develop and promote tourism in their localities. Moreover, they may propose measures – mainly as regards the organisation of cultural, sports or recreational events – that the community could use to promote the region according to the needs of the local populace and the priorities for local development. As stated in Article 3(1) Law No. 3852/2010, “regional units are self-governed private law entities and constitute the second tier of local government”. The regional units are thirteen (13) and are responsible for the coordination and legality of government policy implementation at the regional level. According to Article 186(II)(D) Law No. 3852/2010 on the Competences of Regional Units, these competences extend, among others, to employment, commerce and tourism. Specifically, the thirteen (13) regional units were granted the power to establish programmes for tourism planning, as well as tourism development and promotion of the associated region, in cooperation with GNTO, the region’s municipalities and opinions on the designation and delimitation of Integrated Tourist Development Areas (ITDA), entailing the establishment, in the context of development programmes, of facility development plans for dealing with the effects of climate change on tourism. The regional units also have special regulatory and licensing powers, which are mandated by special provisions (e.g. sanitary inspections, inspections regarding environmental licensing or the licensing of pescatourism activities) 16 . It is true that tourism is in large part the result of actions undertaken by private bodies and tourism professionals, thus the national and regional policy on tourism should arise as a collaborative effort between these actors and the public institutions with key competences in the field of tourism. A genuine partnership between the public and the private sector, based upon free competition and in harmony with the directions assumed by the regional policy, could contribute to general interest goals and to the growth of Greek tourism. 16 Papathanasopoulos, A. (2018), ibid ., p. 136.