Consumer's rights in the travel and tourism industry

Abstract

Travel and tourism produce images of holidays, nice places, fun and relaxation but few know of their rights if things go wrong. This thesis tries to put into perspective some of the rights pertaining to incoming and outgoing tourists. It analyses with the support of case-law various aspects of what may fail before, during and after a holiday, identifies the persons that may be held responsible for such failure and discusses the public and private law remedies available to the consumer in such cases. The Package Travel Regulations are thoroughly discussed and the rights emanating therefrom are sharply contrasted to those of non-package holidaymakers. Consumers' rights as passengers on aircrafts and cruises also figure prominently in this thesis and the adequacy of their protection is examined. Attention was also given to tourists' rights against hotel owners and to other forms of legal protection which the travelling consumer enjoys such as safeguards against unfair travel contract terms and false and misleading advertising. A discussion of the consumer protection role exercised by the Malta Tourism Authority as well as of the means of dispute resolution, such as the Consumer Claims Tribunal was a necessary part of this thesis. Successful consumer protection in travel and tourism can be attained by effective enforcement measures since legislating without real enforcement is of no use. Consumer protection in this field is still however a grey area upon which more needs to be legislated to secure further protection to the tourist. Effective and transparent handling of complaints and proper enforcement mechanisms ensuring that the law is properly applied are a key to consumer protection in the tourism industry.