A NEW ADMINISTRATIVE LAW FOR A NEW TOURISM: NOW OR NEVER requirement of vaccinations for travel between certain countries. The autonomous communities have opted to allow major tourist events to be held (San Fermín, major concerts in Madrid, the April Fair in Seville, etc.), without taking much care to require health measures to prevent the spread of the virus. I understand that these decisions benefit certain tourist sectors, there is no doubt, but in my opinion more caution would have been necessary when allowing certain celebrations, especially when we are talking about an economic sector that is particularly volatile in crisis situations, as has been amply demonstrated in recent years3. On the other hand, the terrible spectre of war is once again hanging over us, which is not exactly going to help the economic recovery of tourism. Certainly, as with the pandemic, the most dramatic aspect is still the number of victims and casualties, but regarding what we are analyzing here, we cannot fail to mention that, despite the restrictions, 134,000 Russian tourists visited us last year, spending 228 million euros, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics on Tourist Movements at the Border (FRONTUR). The tourism sector, which accounts for approximately 15% of our country’s GDP, is in a particularly precarious situation, as it has been the economic sector that has first suffered the effects of the pandemic, reaching what has been called “tourist zero”4. The restrictions on mobility and the measures imposed on travelers visiting our territory have had a major impact on activity. According to INE data, international tourist arrivals fell by 75.86% in August 2020. In addition, the different “waves” that we have suffered throughout 2021 have prevented the activity from taking off, so that the long-awaited recovery is taking longer than desired, although the forecasts for the summer of 2022 are even too flattering, with an estimated growth of 53%, with an increase in activity of 47,000 million euros. Paradoxically, just before the pandemic, the most specialised doctrine on the subject questioned the tourism growth model that was being developed in our country, especially in certain territories (Balearic Islands, Mediterranean coast, etc.), and some autonomous communities even adopted legal regulations that 3 Regarding the volatility of the sector, see CORRAL SASTRE, A. (2017), La liberalización del sector turístico, ¿Hacia un modelo de turismo sostenible?, Reus. 4 SIMANCAS CRUZ, M., (2020), ‘Deconstruyendo una crisis turística’, in Turismo poscoronavirus, ¿una oportunidad para el reconocimiento?, en Turismo pos-COVID-19. Reflexiones, retos y oportunidades, Coord. SIMANCAS CRUZ, M., HERNÁNDEZ MARTÍN, R. Y PADRÓN FUMERO, N., Cátedra de Turismo Caja Canarias- -Ashotel de la Universidad de La Laguna.
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