Sustainable Tourism Law

296 SUSTAINABLE TOURISM LAW National Commission on Markets and Competition (CNMC in Spanish) on the grounds that city councils cannot limit the number of tourist dwellings, because this action is contrary to competition and to the principles of efficient economic regulation. The Commission on Competition is bringing contentious- -administrative actions against the decrees of Galicia, Castile and Leon where it is stipulated that city councils can limit the maximum number of dwellings for tourism use per building or area. From this point of view, we must mention the recent decision of the High Court of Justice of the Canary Islands of March 2017 that establishes a clear position regarding these kinds of limitations. The Decree 113/2015 of the Canary Islands regulates this new service of tourist accommodation, which can only be performed in accommodation units located in buildings originally intended for residential use (homes) and excluding from the regulation “the buildings placed on tourist grounds located in tourist areas or tourist resorts, as well as housing located in tourist resorts or mixed residential tourist resorts”. The exclusion from the scope of application corresponds to a ban. The court claims that ‘the intention is not to offer tourist accommodation services in homes located in tourist areas or mixed use areas’. The defendant administration tries to justify this exclusion appealing that there cannot be vacation homes in tourist locations, or that other forms of tourist accommodation located in specific territorial areas must be regulated. The court states that the first argument is “a fallacy” because tourist zones are established on territories where residential uses could have been implanted previously. The specialization of uses according to areas that the different laws on tourism seek to promote (Law 6/2009, of 6 May, Law 2/2013, of 29 May) is just an aspiration, but it is far from being a reality. The second argument does not offer significantly better value, since stating that tourism regulations require city hotels to be located in cities or rural tourism lodgings in the countryside is an inconsistent argument. What happens is that different quality standards are demanded from the accommodation establishments that are located in the cities or in the countryside. There is no limitation on the establishment of tourist accommodations in certain areas. The regulations of the Canary Islands tourism law do not mandate a form of tourist accommodation that can only be performed outside the tourist areas. It is contemplated that certain tourist accommodation offers can be subject to less demanding standards because they are outside the tourist areas. The court understands that excluding the offer of holiday homes from tourist areas or mixed-use areas, precisely where tourist uses are predominantly located,