Sustainable Tourism Law

450 SUSTAINABLE TOURISM LAW commitments, charters, conventions and codes of conduct; Beginning with the World Heritage Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage of UNESCO, 1972, and ending with the UNWTO 2015 Bethlehem Declaration on Religious Tourism, which took place in Palestine. This summit featured several calls for action after a preamble of consensual agreements. The calls for action are directed to governments and international organizations (1), local communities and destinations (2), the tourism industry (3), consumers (4), researchers, development agents and trainers (5) and networks and NGOs (6). It is widely considered one of the most complete and up to date international documents in the matter. These calls for action are designed to project, to express an intention, to propose and build paths for the future as instruments of governance and “soft power” (Nye, 2010; Nadales, 2012). They can be conceptualized as a kind of preliminary plan (Goeldner and Ritchie, 2009). According to Fernandes (2017), these calls for action are recommendations of international soft law that prepare the way for binding rules (hard law) in the future. In the WSST+20, the calls for action of local communities and destinations should, among other aspects: a) Ensure that the governance of tourismdestinations includes all stakeholders, especially at the local level and that the roles and responsibilities of each are clearly defined; b) Empower local communities and indigenous peoples, as well as facilitate their participation in tourism planning and development, taking the necessary measures to maximize the economic benefits of tourism for the host community; c) Create strong links with the local economy of destination and other economic activities in the environment; d) Preserve destination values by outlining processes to monitor change, evaluate threats, risks and opportunities, while allowing public and private leaders to sustain the destination’s sense of place. Regarding the motto “Partnerships for a sustainable future”, the world summit declares that: a) The participation and collaboration of all public and private stakeholders involved in tourism activities is a necessary contribution to the active