142 COMPETITION LAW IN TOURISM suitable where the Commission can even exclude the presence of State aid. All these give a wide variety of options for the Member States and the Commission to find compatibility of the State support measures in the tourism sector. Nevertheless, services provided for tourists – and not for the community as a whole living in a touristic area – can never qualify as a Service of General Economic Interest. Therefore, compensation can never be granted by the State for the provision and losses resulting from these services. After studying the Commission’s decision and the EU Courts’ judgments related to tourism, one can conclude that they have enriched State aid law by both confirming already accepted interpretations and giving interpretative direction as regards the general block exemption regulation or the Commission’s compatibility assessment. To further help the Member States, the DirectorateGeneral for Competition of the Commission has adopted a non-paper on State aid and tourism giving guidance on the most common tourism related aid measures. Taken all elements of EU State aid law into account, a quite clear picture can be drawn as regards the qualification of these measures.
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