La regulación de las empresas de turismo activo hacia la tercera década del siglo XXI

Abstract

It will be 30 years next year since legislation was first introduced to regulate active tourism companies in Spain. Legislation on active tourism now exists in 14 of the 17 Spanish autonomous regions, and improvements have gradually started to show in relation to quality, safety and customer service standards. This study presents a timely review of the current state of the sector, to examine the projects and ideas from the past three decades that have been incorporated into legislation, rejected or adapted to extend or restrict their application. The analysis of the situation on the threshold of the sector’s 30^th anniversary focuses on the ‘Sector-specific model for regional regulation of active tourism’ by the National Association of Active Tourism Entrepreneurs (2016), the ‘Draft Decree for the Regulation of Active Tourism in Galicia’ (2019) and the ‘Draft Decree for the Regulation of Active Tourism Companies in Aragon’ (2020). The study shows that the 2021 proposals for regulation of the active tourism sector by Spain’s regional governments have been influenced by changes in national and European legislation, the evolution of Spanish society, the changing nature of active tourism and the modernisation of the tourism sector generally.