TOURISM AND STATE AID 137 touristic developments can have a broader economic impact than just within the sector itself. Also, touristic services and their development are interlinked and add to the quality of living of the inhabitants. On the other hand, there was a constant need from the Member States to have detailed and tourism-specific State aid rules or at least an explanation on the application of State aid law in this sector, which could contribute to the legal certainty. The articulation of this need has led the Commission’s Directorate General for Competition to issue a working document paper on tourism and State aid a couple of years ago, summarising the most important issues and the applicable rules. The Member States can use this document as the first guidance when their planned measure is assessed at a national level from the State aid point of view, given that it contains explanations both on the presence of aid for touristic measures and about the rules to be applied if a measure constitutes aid. The document should be read in conjunction with the Commission’s notice on the notion of aid (2016)71. This informal note explains briefly in which cases public financing of touristic activities and infrastructure is State aid and in which cases it is not. Secondly, the document also explains if the measure constitutes State aid and how it can be made compatible without notifying it ex-ante for the Commission. The situations and measures not mentioned in the informal document should be notified and most probably would be subject to compatibility assessment in the light of the common assessment principles. As regards the presence of aid, the Commission highlights that only economic activities fall within the scope of competition law and State aid law. Therefore, “non-income generating tourism facilities built in the interest of the general public and open and equally accessible would fall outside the scope of Article 107(1) TFEU”72. The paper also mentions that if infrastructures are only exploited to a limited amount of their capacity as an economic activity (ancillary economic activity), they can still escape the qualification as economic activity, and their financing 71 See footnote 11. 72 Such as information centres and similar welcoming facilities, footpaths, cycle paths and bridle paths, learning experience and nature paths including signage, equipment, shelter and observation posts, car parks, picnic areas to be used free of charge, public toilets, promenades, piers, ski trails, spa gardens, boat landing stages, floating jetties, bathing areas and natural theatres, graduation towers and watertreading facilities that are not commercially exploited.
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