Sustainable Tourism Law

THE PRINCIPLES OF TOURISM LAW AS A BASIS FOR SUSTAINABLE TOURISM 485 accommodation services without owning a single room, a hotel. So, the legal norms of accommodation or traditional hotels are not applicable to this phenomenon. Local ground transportation, UBER: this company provides local ground transportation services, without owning a single car. So, there is no possibility of setting a regulation from a traditional perspective. Other problems can be visa management; travel alerts: travel warnings; cybercrimes; protection of intangible heritage; air transport rights; protections of customs, among others. The sector of tourism is changing at a very fast pace, so the law should follow that speed of change, but what we observe in different legislations is that it is not possible, the law is always left behind, far behind from the changes that have happened in tourism. Then where should we go? Where is the legislation that must deal with such situations? Perhaps the most common response would be to wait for the law to change. That approach, in a society where tourist services are vital, is not acceptable. For example: telling a diner to wait because his dish is two hours late, or to a passenger that his flight is 4 hours late, and we can keep providing more examples. Tourism is highly demanding and does not accept that response. So, who do we turn to or what can be done? And that is where this approach makes sense. With increasing regularity, we are turning to principles and universal standards that allow us to distinguish that: what is being done is tourism and not another economic activity disguised as tourism. Tourism is peace, it is wealth, it is integration, it is development, it is sustainability. Will there be laws, articles, codes that understand that and try to regulate the activity from that perspective? It is very difficult to give a response. However evolved a country’s legislation is, it is impossible to regulate everything. It faces the incompleteness of the rule of law. Then, from that perspective, it can be said that Tourism Law is not just in the rules, in a few legal rules of a particular country. The Law of Tourism is in the expectation that the tourist has to make the trip. It is those tourist expectations that should be explored to create a serious and adequate law of tourism. From our perspective, the legal system is made up of laws, legal norms, judicial decisions and general principles of law. The same is true for Tourism Law, which is also composed of these elements. But, faced with the above, we need to resort to principles that help us reorient the activity, place the spotlight on tourism and create a sustainable tourism.