Tourism Law in Europe

2 In the Tourism Code, public law institutions mainly refer to the regulation of access to the relevant activities. For example, art. 4 of the code identifies tourist enterprises 4 as any economic organisation aimed at the marketing, production, intermediation and management of services which form the offer, with the corresponding public control due to the protection of general interests. The aim is to regulate the market as a whole and the requirements for participation, in the belief that such an institutional initiative would allow for a better match between supply and demand and greater protection of consumer expectations. This last idea could be debated at length, because one may wonder whether the administrative activity brings real benefits or only leads to bureaucratic burdens. However, there is no sign of this strategy being watered down. The Code is part of a complex regulatory framework, since Article 117 of the Constitution was amended by Constitutional Law No 3 of 2001 and, in particular, the tourism sector became a matter of exclusive regional competence; therefore, only the regions can regulate activities from an administrative point of view. Thus, many of the Code’s provisions providing for public intervention were declared constitutionally illegitimate, due to the violation of the exclusive sphere of regional intervention 5 . For example, the Code had reorganised the control of accommodation facilities 6 and, since these businesses are conditioned by administrative intervention, Article 16 had provided for a simplified procedure for access to their operation. Now, on the basis of their territorial specificity, the regions define these aspects, just as it is entrusted to them the regulation of the administrative procedures on the start and development of the economic function. However, regional legislation cannot tighten up the administrative regime, since that would be contrary to the demands for simplification made at Community level by Directive 2006/123/EC, implemented by Italy by Law No 59 of 2010. 4 See Mussoni, Sostegni e incentivi alle imprese turistiche, in Aa. Vv. Evoluzione e prospettive della legislazione sul turismo, edited by Gola, Rimini, 2002, 161 et seq .; Vuillermoz, La disciplina dell’Unione europea in materia di aiuti di Stato applicata al settore turistico - ricreativo, in Riv. it. dir. tur., 2011, 27 et seq .; Cecchetti, La disciplina dell’impresa turistica, in Aa. Vv., Diritto pubblico del turismo, edited by Gola - Groppi, Rimini, 2005, 158 on. 5 See Constitutional Court 5 April 2012, no. 80, in Giur. it. rep. , 2012. 6 See De Nardis, Profili pubblicistici delle strutture ricettive, delle agenzie di viaggio e turismo e delle professioni turistiche: problemi e prospettive (nelle regioni ordinarie), in Aa. Vv., Tourismo. Diritto e diritti, a cura di Degrassi - V. Franceschelli, Milano, 2010, 195 et seq .