Montevideo to Host Office for the Tourism Law Observatory for Latin America and the Caribbean

By Pittaluga Abogados

The head office of the Tourism Law Observatory for Latin America and the Caribbean has been inaugurated at the United Nations House in Montevideo, Uruguay. It is the first thematic office of UN Tourism based in the region of the Americas and will focus on legal issues. 

It will deploy a pioneering digital tool, which includes a database, "TurismoLex", that compiles the tourism legislation of the LAC area, as well as a virtual classroom, a community of practices and regulatory quality indicators. The Observatory will represent an interactive forum where the public, private and academic sectors will be able to exchange best practices and discuss legislative trends in tourism in the region.

The Observatory represents a valuable resource that will help governments, policymakers and public and private entities in the sector to improve and implement more harmonized, coherent and effective legal frameworks for tourism. In addition, the Observatory establishes a framework for collaboration with prestigious higher education institutions in the area to carry out studies, technical reports and create working groups that deal with Tourism Law, responding to the needs that States and operators in the sector may present.

The Observatory will have as its main objectives the improvement in the quality of tourism regulations. It will also serve as a technical forum that promotes appropriate regulation for the area, issuing reports and studies through which the Administrations, mainly, can develop legislation appropriate to the interests of the sector, thus facilitating regional regulatory cooperation, improving cross-border relations and the harmonious development of tourism legislation.