Sustainable Tourism Law

QUALITY AND SUSTAINABLE TOURISM DEVELOPMENT 271 The regulatory dumping will occur when the economic operators analyse the regulations of the different autonomous communities and decide, naturally, to start their activity in the region with the least amount of requirements. But the case may arise, not infrequently, that an autonomous community has not even regulated that activity in question and, therefore, there are no access requirements, becoming absolutely free. This can have serious consequences for consumers and users of services. Let’s think of a concrete example. A company, with no experience in the sector decides to dedicate itself to active tourism 29 in, say, Andalusia. To start an active tourism activity in this community, it is necessary to comply with the requirements referred to in article 23 and following of Decree 20/2002, of January 29, which regulates tourism in rural areas and active tourism. However, this activity of active tourism is not regulated in other communities such as Madrid or the Basque Country, so it seems logical to think that the company, to save costs, will decide to start working in some of these communities in order to subsequently jump to Andalusia. We are, therefore, in a regulatory market between autonomous communities that can undoubtedly facilitate the deregulation of certain sectors 30 . 29 Article 23 of Decree 20/2002, of January 29, establishes the following: Article 23. Requisites required to develop active tourism activities in Andalusia. 1. Companies that organize any active tourism activities in Andalusia must meet the following requirements: a) Have a professional liability insurance appropriate to the nature and scope of the risk of active tourism activities that they develop. Said insurance will cover the potential liabilities for the risks that may arise for the recipients or for third parties. b) Having presented the declaration of responsibility in the Tourism Registry of Andalusia in accordance with the provisions of article 35.2 of Law 12/1999, of December 15, on Tourism. c) Have qualified personnel for the development of each activity. 2. In the cases in which it is mandatory, they must provide a statement of responsibility that they have: a) The navigation authorization, granted by the competent body, in the cases in which the activity takes place in public domain waters or when it is related to air navigation. b) The authorization granted by the Regional Ministry responsible for the environment in those cases in which it is required by the regulations for the protection of natural areas, forest lands and livestock trails. c) Any other administrative authorization required by the applicable legislation. 3. For reasons of public safety, the insurance indicated in section 1 will also be required for providers operating in Andalusia under the freedom of services regime within the European Union, unless the persons or entities providing the service are already covered in another Member State in which they are already established by a guarantee equivalent or substantially comparable in terms of their purpose and the coverage offered in terms of insured risk, insured sum or limit of the guarantee and possible exclusions from the coverage. If the equivalence is only partial, a supplementary guarantee will be required to cover the elements that are not yet covered. 30 REBOLLO PUIG, Manuel, “The Autonomous State after the Law of Guarantee of the Market Unit and its principles of national necessity and effectiveness”, op. cit ., p. 95, “And above all, its tactic of guaranteeing market unity and free circulation through the deregulation that is imposed, at least, on the Autonomous Communities and local entities”.