Sustainable Tourism Law

FROM TOURISM TO SUSTAINABLE TOURISM 51 The constitutional revision of 2001 strengthens the competence of the Italian Regions, of a predominantly administrative nature, leaving the discipline of private institutes under State law. The Grande Giubileo dell’Anno 2000 «Incarnationis mysterium» first and then the Milano EXPO of 2015 constitute the flywheel for Italian Tourism. At the same time, a new chapter was starting: research towards a Sustainable Tourism. III. TOURISM LAW From Statutes to Tourism Law We have seen that, in the elapsing of time, an impressive corpus of Laws and Statutes was promulgated in various fields of touristic activities, from hotels to travel contracts. This set of rules was not based on an organic framework. An addition at a specific moment was identified as “Touristic Legislation”. Touristic legislation was mainly formed by administrative or public law. But the increasing attention paid to travellers led to the introduction of rules of private and civil law. Travellers are consumers, and Consumer Law was developing at State and European level. Laws related to tourism were becoming interdisciplinary. Time were then mature for scholars and jurisprudence to research a more systematic and dogmatic approach, that led to the concept of “Tourism Law”. A peculiarity of Italian tourism: The State / Regions relation In Italy, today we have one State Law, and twenty (20) regionalTourismLaws. Regions are autonomous entities with legislative and administrative powers defined in the Italian Constitution. Let’s see how this happened and what the consequences are. Our founding fathers, after the experience of the unitary State, following a degeneration that led us to the Second World War, decided to balance the power of the central State with an effective counterweight. They chose, as we all know, the Regions 30 . One choice – we can say today, over seventy years later – that is quite artificial. 30 Art. 114 of the Italian Constitution: “The Republic is composed of the Municipalities, the Provinces, the Metropolitan Cities, the Regions and the State. Municipalities, provinces, metropolitan cities and regions are autonomous entities having their own statutes, powers and functions in accordance with the principles laid down in the Constitution. Rome is the capital of the Republic. Its status is regulated by State Law”.