3.3. – The role to be played by public administrations in changing the tourism business model. This is the current panorama of tourism in our country. A sector immersed in a serious structural crisis, with a model, I believe, anchored in the last century, which means that little or no progress can be made without the decisive impetus of the public authorities. In this sense, the role that public administrations are called upon to judge is crucial , through the diferent instruments of administrative intervention 26 available to them. In this respect, although it is true that the liberalisation carried out in recent years has left the administrations with fewer resources to intervene in the sector, it is no less true that there are currently adequate mechanisms that allow them to carry out this task more or less efectively. And apart from the existence of mechanisms to control the tourist ofer, it is true that, on many occasions, it has been the administrations themselves that have encouraged unsustainable tourism through the implementation of public policies aimed at the "touristifcation" of urban areas. Consequently, it is the public administrations that should, as I understand it, lead the change, frmly spearheading progress towards a sustainable tourism model from all perspectives. May the crisis generated by COVID-19 be, this time, the long-awaited turning point. Of course, public promotion measures, which have been developed in recent years since the beginning of the health crisis, frst, and then the economic crisis (or simultaneously), are not ruled out. There has been a great deal of aid, both from the State and from the autonomous communities, municipalities, provincial councils and the European Union itself. From the European Union, it is worth highlighting the Thomas Cook line of fnancing for companies established in Spain in certain economic sectors, especially tourism. Thus, at the Extraordinary European Council of 10 March 2020, four priorities were identifed: limiting the spread of the virus, supplying medical equipment, promoting research and addressing the socio-economic consequences. The Spanish government addressed this fourth priority in Royal Decree-Law 7/2020 of 12 March 2020, which adopts urgent measures to respond to the economic impact of COVID-19 (BOE 13 March 2020) and devotes chapter III to the articulation of a series of measures to support the tourism sector. On the occasion of World Tourism Day 2021, a specialised media outlet such as Hosteltur 26 recreated an imaginary scene between a teacher and his student following the Socratic method to explain the relationship between tourism and circular economy devised by Professor Alfonso VARGAS-SÁNCHEZ (2021) and reproduced below (the names devised are Amanda -student- and Pedro -professor-): [...] The road to sustainability has to be travelled jointly, with the involvement of all parties with a role to play, who have to be aligned and add up, with special reference to public administrations due to their importance in this and other facets. 16
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