Sustainable Tourism Law

FROM TOURISM TO SUSTAINABLE TOURISM 43 links to other economic sectors and can generate development opportunities along the entire tourism value chain” 17 . The WTO 2016 annual report read as follows: “2016 was a momentous year for tourism. International tourist arrivals continued their upward trajectory in their seventh straight year of above-average growth despite many challenges, reaching 1.2 billion. A comparable sequence of uninterrupted solid growth has not been recorded since the 1960s”. In Italy, the year 2014 showed a continuous positive trend 18 ; in 2015, occupation in hotels was around 392.8 million (+15 million in 2014, + 4.0%) and 113.4 million arrivals (+7 million, equal to + 6.4%) 19 . In Italy, the summer of 2017 registered 48 million arrivals. The legal framework: three levels of rules and “soft law” As we have anticipated, the regulation of tourist activities is complex. In the source system, Tourism Law requires and assumes a multi-level investigation. From a legal point of view, it is necessary to operate with a threefold order of rules: regional norms, national laws, EU directives and regulations, as well as, of course, a set of rules that result from the adherence of Italy to international conventions that directly or indirectly concern tourism. Some of these rules derive frompublic and administrative laws and regulations. Some rules are connected with private and commercial law institutes. In recent times, at the extreme edge of the law, soft law is of increasing relevance. Soft law derives from Resolutions and Codes adopted as time passed, like for example, the World Code of Ethics for Tourism, or The World Charter for Sustainable Tourism, as we will see. Tourism Law: a definition Every branch of the law needs a definition. We must ask ourselves what the term “Tourism Law” describes and we must attribute to that new description a content, whether dogmatic or merely didactic. 17 Chengdu Declaration on ‘Tourism and the Sustainable Development Goals, 2017. http://cf.cdn.unwto.org/ sites/all/files/pdf/13.09.17_unwto_ga22-hl_chengdu_declaration_final_clean_.pdf 18 OECD 2016 TourismTrends and Policies Report: “Data for 2014 shows a steady and positive tourism trend in Italy. International travel receipts grew at a stronger pace (3.6%) than Italian exports in general (2%), rising from EUR 33.1 billion in 2013 to EUR 34.2 billion in 2014, and confirming the leading role of tourism in the Italian economy. From a medium-term perspective, international travel expenditure has also demonstrated steady growth (from 33% of total tourism expenditure in 2007 to 39.6% in 2014)”. 19 ISTAT Report.