Sustainable Tourism Law

SUSTAINABILITY AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN THE REGULATION 297 SUST INABILITY AND SOCIAL RESPONSABILITY IN HOSTING lacks legal coverage in the Canary Islands tourism law. The court maintains that the regulation clearly infringes freedom of enterprise (Art. 38 EC) and freedom to provide services (Directive 2006/123/EC, of 12 December), limiting tourism supply without sufficient justification. It does not make any sense that the offer of holiday homes is excluded from those areas where the tourist activity should be preferentially located. The only plausible explanation for this restriction is to favour the offer of traditional tourist accommodation products, which are mostly located in these tourist areas, thereby violating free competition in the provision of services. For these reasons, the court annuls this section of the decree from the Canary Islands. c.2. Protection of resources essential for life: water, air. Compliance with other rules: sanitary, health and environment protection It is obvious that water and air quality condition tourism activity and are essential for the health and well-being of people and destinations. After the discovery of new destinations, it is common to see the proliferation of tourist facilities that are sources of noise in overcrowded municipalities/cities. The accommodation in dwellings for tourism use has increased in a non-regulated way, and this causes overcrowding problems in the cities. There are many complaints from local residents about noise late at night or dirt, and about other inconveniences these dwellings cause in the buildings where they are located or in surroundings streets. There are many decrees regulating this kind of accommodation that mention the need to develop tourism activities according to the sectorial regulation applicable to it, especially the regulations on sanitation, hygiene andenvironment 79 . But these are just “formal clauses” and there is no need for the regulation to include “a sort of opinion on the sectorial regulation applicable to it” 80 . The regulation of La Rioja on this point is very expressive: “in the terms required by the applicable general and sectorial regulation, providers shall be responsible for the damages to air, soil, subsoil, fauna, flora or any other element in environment or nature, as well as for the disturbance of essential ecological processes that can arise, except where the responsibility is given to 79 For example: Art. 2 and 27.a) Asturias; Art. 6 Aragon; Additional provision Castile and Leon; Art. 4 Canary Islands; Art. 5 Madrid. 80 This is what the High Court of Justice of the Canary Islands states in the Sentencing No. 41/2017 where it responds to a claim of indeterminacy of the applicable sectorial regulation posed by the Spanish Federation of Holiday Rentals Association (FEVITUR) against the Decree 113/2015, of 22 May, that approves the regulation of holiday homes of the Canary Islands Autonomous Community.