Legislation, tourism

Legislation can be defined as the designing and enacting of laws by a governmental body entrusted with that responsibility. It also refers to the encoded body of enacted laws themselves. Tourism itself presents more of a challenge in terms of arriving at a universally acknowledged definition. For the purposes herein, where legislation affecting tourism is addressed, a comprehensive interpretation is employed. UNWTO (1995) defines tourism as the activity of people traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business, and other purposes. Through its Global Code of Ethics, UNWTO (2001) has established universal standards addressing divergent aspects such as economic growth, environmental and developmental sustainability, accessibility, reduction of poverty, self-education, cross-cultural tolerance, and promotion of human rights. Ethical standards are, however, purely voluntary and can only serve as a model for...