Sustainable Tourism Law

A NEW DRAFT REGULATION OF PACKAGE TRAVELS IN SPAIN 555 The original wording of article 163 of the GLPCU replicated the content of the repealed article 12 of the Act on Package Travels. The new regulation also kept the remission to the rules adopted by the relevant tourism administrative body with regards to the provision of financial guarantees. By that moment, most of the Autonomous Communities had already approved their general norms on tourism. They had also provided the regulation of the tourism agencies operating within their territories. In this legislative framework, national regulation was relegated, as their provisions would only be enforceable in deprecation of autonomous regulations. The continued existence of this national regulation was hardly justifiable. In fact, most tourism professionals, the relevant administrative bodies and the academia expressed their concerns about how the legislative gaps and the contradictions resulting from this situation should be addressed, as different regulations were in force. Most of the solutions were based on general law principles and, in some cases, they pointed to the non-application of the rules, as they were contrary to the ones provided by the Autonomous Communities 31 . This context was further complicated in 2009. In that year, the Spanish regulation had to adapt its provisions to Directive 2006/123, on services in the internal market 32 . The adaptation required an in-depth modification of the whole Spanish legal system, to comply with the requirements of the Directive. The legal regime of travel agencies and other relevant regulations on tourism issues 33 were also affected. This Directive allowed the establishment of companies within the territories of other Member States, simplifying authorization procedures and, among other measures, removing obstacles such as the obligation to get an administrative license enabling the operation as a travel agency. Notwithstanding this Directive, there wasn´t a full repeal of all the regulations that might be contrary to the free provision of services. In particular, the Decree and the Ministry Order regulating the activity of travel agencies were kept in force. 31 BENAVIDES VELASCO, P., “La nueva regulación sobre la contratación de viviendas con fines turísticos”, in Retos y tendencias del derecho de la contratación mercantil , (Dirs. Miranda, L. y Pagador, J), (Coords. Serrano, J.M. y Casado, A.), Marcial Pons, Madrid, 2017. 32 Directive 2006/123/EC, of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 12 December 2006, on services in the internal market, OJ L376, of 17 December 2006. 33 Vid., MELGOSA ARCOS, F.J., “Directiva de Servicios y Turismo: aproximación a la incidencia de la Directiva de Servicios en el marco jurídico del turismo español”, Noticias de la Unión Europea , no. 317, 2011, p. 47.