Sustainable Tourism Law

THE UNWTO DRAFT CONVENTION ON THE PROTECTION OF TOURISTS 231 “ Transforming our world: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development ” 100 ; the latter defined a thorough, wide and individual-centred series of universal and development-oriented objectives, as well as Sustainable Development Goals , aiming at eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions through a commitment to reach a sustainable development in its three areas – economic, social and environmental – with a balanced and integrated approach, based on the results of the Millennium Development Goals to face the work still to be carried out 101 . Specifically, among the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and the 169 Targets established by the Agenda, objective 16 has a prominent role among others to “ Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels ”; based on this objective, the United Nations has the task to “promote the rule of law at the national and international levels and ensure equal access to justice for all” ( Goal 16.3); likewise, a contribution might be given by the Draft International Convention on the protection of tourists and on the rights and obligations of tourism service provider. Such a theme has been widely analysed in the guide published in 2005 by UNEP and UNWTO, Making Tourism More Sustainable – A Guide for Policy Makers 102 , aiming at providing national governments with a framework to implement more sustainable tourism policies and to offer a series of tools to be used to implement these policies. Assuming that governments are able to adopt and apply rules, regulations and sanctions to control the development of the market, the activity of operators and to influence people’s behaviour, we can say that legislation and regulation should be applied only when needed, while the success of the discipline’s intervention requires pertinent, clear, viable and potentially applicable measures. It has also been considered that there is a series of issues dealing with development, activities and tourism management that should be controlled through legislation 100 See also Resolution A/RES/70/193 adopted by the UN General Assembly on 22 December 2015, with which 2017 was proclaimed “ International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development ”. 101 According to Declaration 33, The United Nations “are also determined to promote sustainable tourism”, so to be committed, by 2030, to “devise and implement policies to promote sustainable tourism that creates jobs and promotes local culture and products” ( Goal 8.9), “develop and implement tools to monitor sustainable development impacts for sustainable tourism that creates jobs and promotes local culture and products” ( Goal 12.b), on the “increase the economic benefits to small island developing States and least developed countries from the sustainable use of marine resources, including through sustainable management of fisheries, aquaculture and tourism” ( Goal 14.7). 102 See the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) – World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), Making Tourism More Sustainable – A Guide for Policy Makers , 2005, especially the part on Command and control instruments , pp. 78 e ss.