Sustainable Tourism Law

THE UNWTO DRAFT CONVENTION ON THE PROTECTION OF TOURISTS 215 As anticipated above, the discipline of accommodation contract described in Annex III – Accommodation of the Draft International Convention refers to the role of Accommodation service provider , complementary to the tourist service provider . The “Accommodation provider” is himself a particular “tourist service provider” who directly or through an intermediary, sells, offers to sell, supplies or undertakes to supply standalone accommodation services (Art. 1, Standard 1.1, lett. b ). In conclusion, among the definitions offered by Art. 3 of General Provisions , it is interesting to point out the notion of “ Tourism service ”, meant as the provision to tourists, separately or combined, of one of the services indicated as examples in the Draft International Convention. Among these should be specifically mentioned: (i) accommodation, (ii) food and beverage services; (iii) railway, road, water or air passenger transport services, (iv) transport rental services, (v) travel agencies and other reservation services, (vi) cultural, religious or sports events, (vii) other leisure services provided to tourists 42 . As far as the potential adoption of the draft Convention at international level is concerned, it should be especially highlighted that among the Final provisions some regulations have been introduced to foster the highest possible dissemination of a standard discipline. Towards the perspective of creating a new international framework for travel contracts, it is indeed expected that the International Convention should be opened to all Member States of the UNWTO and all Member States of the United Nations, together with regional economic integration organizations 43 (Art. 12, “ Signature ”). Likewise, it has been established that the Convention is subjected to ratification, acceptance, approval or accession by States and regional economic integration organizations (Art. 13, “ Ratification, acceptance, approval or accession ”). Although the extension of the range of subjects legitimated to agree with the International Convention seems extremely advantageous – also taking into consideration the fact that the discipline of tourist package travel, duty of assistance and tourist protection, has recently been subjected to a new discipline in Europe 44 42 See Art. 3, lett. b , General provisions. 43 To these it refers the following Art. 14, “ Participation by regional economic integration organizations ”, General provisions. 44 In this regard it is worth recalling how the UNWTO has recently deepened significantly the relations of cooperation with the European Union, also considering that Europe is the main tourist destination in the world and receives half of the 1.3 billion international arrivals and, as of 2017, international tourism in Europe grew by 8%, one percentage point above the world average, for a total of 671 million tourists. Lastly, the promotion of sustainable tourism in Europe is at the heart of an agreement signed on 28 February 2018 between the UN World Tourism Organization and the European Parliament.