With the main objective of controlling professional intrusion in different fields, protecting both users and businessmen in the sector, this year’s Tourism Inspection Plan will include special monitoring of the Pilgrim’s Way to Santiago, new forms of accommodation and establishments located in cities and coastal areas, as well as the Ribeira Sacra area.
This planning, which will guide the inspection activity of the autonomous government until the end of this year, will allow for an advance in the effectiveness and efficiency of the tourism discipline. The inspection work, which will be carried out with special intensity from Easter onwards, covers the four provinces with a special follow-up on the Pilgrim’s Way to Santiago de Compostela in order to verify compliance with Galician tourist regulations in tourist accommodation establishments, as well as in catering establishments. A particular check will also be carried out on the accommodation offer that is marketed via the Internet. In the specific field of professional intrusion, several actions are planned that give continuity to the work carried out in recent years, with several novelties but, in addition, the services offered by tourist hostels, apartments and tourist dwellings will be monitored, in which it will be verified that their period of operation coincides with that of the Register of Galician Tourist Companies and Activities (REAT). In the case of tourist housing, ordered since May last year through a new decree, will begin to control the marketing platforms of tourist accommodation on the Internet, in order to detect possible situations of intrusion, as with the activity of tourist guides in the centers of greater affluence.
Finally, a special campaign aimed at travel agencies will be promoted to follow up the new guarantee system introduced by the recent Decree 25/2018, which brings our situation into line with the Community framework.
Balance sheet of the activity in 2017
Parallel to the Tourist Inspection Plan for 2018, the Xunta de Galicia Regional Government Council reported on the results of the activity carried out in 2017 by the Galician Tourism Inspection Area. during which 3,568 minutes of record were issued after a visit, compared to 146 minutes of infringement, in addition to a total of 2,700 different types of reports (technical, subsidies or complaints, with a smaller presence, which are linked to complaints from individuals). With regard to the sanctioning activity, 404 cases were opened and 348 were resolved, resulting in sanctions in most cases.