Tourism Law in Europe

6 implemented by the individual Italian Regions on their own territory, under article 8 of the Tourism Code, accommodation facilities may be divided into four basic categories 11 : a) hotel and hotel-like accommodation, including but not limited to hotels, residences, condohotels, motels, hotel-villages, scattered hotels, historical hotel residences, and beauty farms; b) non-hotel accommodation, including, for instance, rooms to let, bed-and- breakfast, holiday homes, furnished tourist homes, youth hostels; accommodation in the context of holiday farms, excursion refuges and mountain huts; c) open-air accommodation, including campsites, tourist villages, marina resorts and campsites in the context of holiday farming activities; and d) support-only facilities, including, in particular, equipped services areas. The classification system of accommodation facilities is also a responsibility of regional lawmakers, both in terms of categories and assignment criteria. In general, Italian Regions adopt fairly uniform standards and use a star-based classification system. By way of example, hotels are classified from 1 to 5 stars, taking into account the size and structural requirements of the services offered and the qualification of employees; accordingly, hotels marked with 5 stars are given the additional designation of “luxury” when they meet the standards of international class accommodation facilities. Moreover, campsites are awarded 1 to 4 stars by regional laws, depending on the service offered, their location and the presence of recreational, cultural and sports facilities. 5. Holiday Farms Among tourist activities, agritourism (or agrotourism) is becoming more and more popular and worth special consideration. The most recent legislation offers special provisions to holiday farms in order to support agriculture, also by promoting suitable forms of tourism in the countryside 12 . The lawmakers aim to: a) protect, qualify and enhance the specific resources of the territory; b) encourage the maintenance of human 11 For an overview of the types of accommodation, see Luca RIGHI, Le strutture ricettive , in Vincenzo FANCESCHELLI & Francesco MORANDI, Manuale di diritto del turismo , op . cit ., p. 147, and Donatella MARINO, Alessio LANZI & Giuseppe MARINO, La nuova ospitalità turistica. Dalle strutture ricettive tradizionali alle recenti formule , Key Editore, Milan, 2019, p. 59. 12 For an analysis of the national framework, see Silvio BUSTI, L’agriturismo , in Vincenzo FANCESCHELLI & Francesco MORANDI, Manuale di diritto del turismo , op . cit ., p. 232.