Tourism Law in Europe

694 TOURISM LAW IN EUROPE Nowadays, it is a tourist route, in addition to the religious ramifications of the route. However, despite being used by these pilgrims and by the many travellers who, for different reasons, have had to spend the night in the various places provided for this purpose, our country lacks appropriate legal regulation in the field of private law. On the other hand, there is a wide-ranging administrative regulation of an autonomous community nature aimed, fundamentally, at establishing the regime to which companies providing tourist accommodation services are subjected to, and in particular the different safety measures both in the infrastructures and in the provision of accommodation services and other related services. The European Union has also paid attention to these safety measures, starting with an incipient regulation aimed at guaranteeing safety in the construction and design of buildings, while also giving special attention to the risks of fire. An example of this is the Council Recommendation of 22 December 1986 on fire safety in existing hotels (86/666/EEC). However, the European Union’s interest is not limited exclusively to these control and safety measures. After becoming aware of the importance of the accommodation service, it has begun to address the accommodation contract, in tandem with the regulation of other contracts, through the Draft Common Frame of Reference (DCFR), in an attempt to achieve the homogenisation of European legislation on contracts. However, this is not the only effort by the Community legislator to deal with a matter of vital importance, given the position of tourism in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the States of the Union. Since 1932, work has been carried out intermittently on homogeneous regulations regarding the liability of hoteliers. At the time, this regulation was demanded by the International Hotel Association and, after many ups and downs, it managed to see the light of day through the European Convention of Paris, of 17 December 1962, on the liability of hoteliers for objects belonging to their clients (known as the Convention on the Liability of Hotelkeepers Concerning the Property of their Guests), promoted by the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT). The curious thing is that Spain, a world power in tourism and with accommodation being one of the most relevant vectors of tourism, has not signed it. In spite of this, both the European Union and the UNIDROIT continue, each in its own sphere, to be interested in seeking homogeneous formulas to ensure the liability of hoteliers for the different personal and property damages suffered by clients in hotel establishments. The need for these formulas is currently very pressing for two reasons: a) because the regulation provided for in our legal system is obsolete and needs urgent updating; and b) because it does not have room for much of

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