Sustainable Tourism Law

646 SUSTAINABLE TOURISM LAW access from urban conurbations may create visiting flows of only a day that surpass the regular touristic activity, movements that can mitigate the reduced effects of the reduced demand during off-season. Tourism is associated with the urbanization of natural places of enormous beauty, inducing an increase in land prices and the cost of living. The positive perspectives for European tourism recommend the preservation of regional diversity, one of its main competitive advantages, deeming it important that the profits generated by a destination revert in its favour. At a global level, European tourists are the ones who represent the biggest demand and European companies detain the biggest share in international investments in tourism. The Commission put its «finger» on the weak spot when referring a slow progress of the matter since, notwithstanding a significant amount of initiatives both in international and in local plans, a major alteration of consumption and production patterns that are unsustainable to European tourism hasn’t occurred yet. An adaptation of funds to requirements in matters of touristic transportation sustainability, the accentuated seasonality of leisure tourismand the unsustainable effects of a social, economic and environmental point of view hasn’t been done as well. The effects created at the level of production and chain of the touristic offer weren’t enough, not even at the level of development of the touristic destinations. Since the socio-economic and environmental costs aren’t internalized, there is a counter-incentive. Furthermore, the consumption’s behaviour is formed individually and tourism occurs locally. The success of initiatives in the sustainable production domain is mainly determined at the level of SMEs and local destinations. The availability of publications and promotion through the Internet don’t raise enough awareness on the field. The contribution of all intervening parties and the development of these aspects are laid down as follows: – merits of subsidiarity and of the prevailing bottom-up approach; – not seeing sustainability in tourism as an isolated problem, dealing with each of its subsectors and aspects; – information to the consumer “to ensure market forces are exerted to promote sustainable consumption and production patterns”; – Recognize SMEs and micro enterprises specific nature; – The need of assuring social and economic viability, as well as environmental sustainability of rural and coastal communities.