Tourism Law in Europe

Airbnb in mind, which today are expanding their business model to practically all the countries of the world. For example, Airbnb is advertised as a platform that facilitates vacation housing in 81,000 cities around the world in 191 countries. These intermediary digital platforms open up huge new markets for homeowners, while raising new questions and legal unknowns. Legal problems arise transversally in all branches of law 4 . In Spain, the vacation rental is conditioned by the following issues: 1. Distribution of legislative powers in matters of tourism 2. Divergent concept of tourist rental in Spanish law 3. Uneven and changing national jurisprudence 4. COVID-19 Crisis 1. Distribution of Competences in the Field of Tourism Under the protection of article 148.1.18 of the Spanish Constitution, the Autonomous Communities can assume competences in matters of tourism. Thus, in Spain the management and promotion of tourism in the corresponding territory is left in the hands of the territorial entities (Autonomous Communities and local entities). For example, in the case of the Balearic Islands, the management and promotion of tourism is exclusively assumed by the Autonomous Community (Art. 10.9 Statute of Autonomy of the Balearic Islands). The consequence is that in the Balearic Islands, the Tourist vacation rental is regulated by a regional law: Ley 6/2017, de 31 de julio, de modificación de la Ley 8/2012, de 19 de julio, del turismo de las Illes Balears, relativa a la comercialización de estancias turísticas en viviendas/ Law 6/2017, of July 31, modifying Law 8/2012, of July 19, on tourism in the Balearic Islands, regarding the commercialization of tourist stays in homes. To this must be added that the island councils, management bodies with competence in each of the main islands, also have legislative competences in this matter and they do so through the “plan de intervención 4 For an extensive analysis of some legal problems in different branches of law, vid. Plataformas digitales en los alquileres vacacionales, Feliu Álvarez de Sotomayor, S., (Dir.), editorial Reus, Madrid, 2020.