Tourism public management is a public competence enshrined in the Spanish Constitution.

Although this fact has been called into question for decades, there is no longer any doubt about the decisive role of the Administration (at whatever level it is divided), to admit that its presence provides tourism with a stable framework, not exclusively conditioned to the evolution of the market.

And it has to be that way, mainly because tourist activity requires for its development the use of assets and public services that were, in most cases, not created for that aim or do not exist. From a micro perspective, tourism products that are created for its consumption, are formed –among their basic components– with public assets that are in general the most valued elements for those who consume them. Other components (such as infrastructures, accessibility, safety or healthcare) are equally decisive, though less visible, and from a macro perspective, they condition, in most cases, tourism success.

These assets and public services are not usually tourism competence, they generate friction between administrations, and these with the private and civil sphere, which can be translated in conflict spaces. Therefore, tourism not only creates economic benefit, but other externalities that, discussed until very recently, have been already assumed by the tourism policy.

Thus, and in the public sphere, tourism public management focuses not only on taking a chance on the developing of opportunities that appear in the potential territories, but also on how to mitigate the negative effects of the activity. This should take into account the diversity of stakeholders and their interests, and should not prioritise between the social, economic and environmental dimensions.