The principle of sustainability in legislative and administrative action in the tourism sector

The evident negative consequences caused by a policy of indiscriminate exploitation of the environmental resource, solely aimed at maximizing profits deriving from tourist activities, have led to a necessary change in approach at both legislative and administrative levels. Not only the significant imbalances caused to the ecosystem of the tourist locations, but also the detrimental effects on the economic and social fabric of the host communities, have led international, supranational, national and regional legislators to re-peatedly evoke the need for the tourist services’ market to be inspired by a sustainable model. The same trend has also emerged with reference to the strategies adopted in the policies of those local administrations most exposed to the unwanted effects of an uncontrolled mass tourism. A trend has therefore emerged at the legislative level which makes sustainability a general principle to be inspired by in the interpretation of the rules established to protect the correct organization of the sector, followed by the practice, developed in local policies, of regu-lating access to particularly crowded locations in a much more rigorous way than in the past.

Antonio Musio, Il principio di sostenibilità nell’azione legislativa e amministrativa in materia di turismo in "RIVISTA ITALIANA DI DIRITTO DEL TURISMO" 44/2025, pp 24-44, DOI: 10.3280/DT2025-044002