Sustainable Tourism Law

FROM TOURISM TO SUSTAINABLE TOURISM 49 in 1954. Richard and Maurice McDonald opened their first restaurant in San Bernardino, California and in 1955 the McDonalds corporation was founded. While tourism in the world was quickly becoming an industry – a mass industry – in Italy it remained mainly a small artisan business: the family-run restaurants, the large luxury hotel with a few rooms, the small hotels with a number of rooms insufficient to even accommodate the passengers of a touristic bus; museums that remained silent and austere. In summary, Italy remained extraneous to the process of industrialization of the tourist enterprise. This traditional approach to tourism may have been appreciated by some, but started to exclude Italian tourist enterprises from the process of innovation. Further evolution of Tourism legislation in the ’80s The transfer of jurisdiction from State to Regions raised the problem of a reasonable coordination. The result was the first “Legge Quadro”, expression that we could translate as “Framework Law on Tourism”. The Legge Quadro had the task of coordinating and harmonizing regional competencies: I refer to L. 17 May 1983, no. 217 (Legge quadro per il turismo e interventi per il potenziamento e la qualificazione dell’offerta turistica – Framework Law for Tourism and interventions for the enhancement and qualification of tourism offerings). From the point of view of legislative developments, important interventions were not lacking in the 1980s. Of particular importance, for the redevelopment of agriculture and for the relaunching of the tourist activity, was L. 5 December 1985 no. 730 on the discipline of agritourism. Among the other legislative interventions, I will mention the Law of 14 November 1981, no. 648 (Nuovo ordinamento dell’Ente Nazionale Italiano per il Turismo – New organization of the Italian National Tourist Board ENIT), L. 22 February 1982, no. 44 (Agevolazioni ai turisti stranieri – Facilitations to foreign tourists) and L. 30 December 1988, no. 556 with urgent and extraordinary measures for the construction of tourist facilities. Lack of professional competences in the education system To the structural crisis corresponded the aging of our education system. The professional training of tour operators remained unchanged, based solely on professional schools. Students graduated and looked immediately for a job. The education system did not offer the possibility to continue their studies in a post graduate level, or in master programs. There was no place for tourism in Italian Universities.