TOURISM SYSTEMS AND POWER: AN OVERALL VIEW TO TOURISM ACCOMMODATION LAW

Abstract

The problem raised by this research was based on a
wide revision of literature on Tourism, Organisations,
Power, Law and its projections and inter-relations, that
has allowed us to establish the concept of ‘tourism
accommodation enterprises’ as power organizations.
The concept constitutes a comprehensive picture of an
organisation, as well as a power system which can be
applicable to Tourism. It was made operational through
variables that allow the maintenance and reproduction
of those system’s relations. The variables, based on
system elements and juridical and economical effi ciency
measures, allowed a static and dynamic evaluation of the
power systems, including an understanding of the network
of connections between Law and Economics, established
in the maximization, effi ciency and effectiveness of those
same systems.
The methodology of the paper has highlighted the
detection of homologies in the functioning of power
systems, resorting to the historical and structural
methods, and in their usage in tourism accommodation
law and tourist territorial administration plans of Madeira
and Azores.
That order is characterized by the concentration of
power effi ciency variables in resort organizations, with
consequent apprehension of regulatory power of the
State in favour of market organizations, thus harming
the tourism systems, the tourism organisations and the
maximization of the benefi ts to society, attained from
Law´s planning and development processes.