Holiday vacation is a time for which you can wait all year round. Travel agencies fill us with tropical paradise offers and encourage us to buy as many attractions as possible to enrich our adventure. Unfortunately, not every summer adventure is positive, and some of them turn into a nightmare. This may happen, for example, when the travel agency does not pay the hotel owner on time, and this one invites guests and suggests to them accommodation on the beach or airport.
A tourist has a right to feel hurt. If he succeeds in his successful return to the country, he can sue the travel agency and claim compensation, however, the sum judged as compensation will not fix the wrong impression instead of a wonderful trip.
Of course, we wish no one to fail in business, but the optimal scheme would be if the vacations went according to plan also in the event of the organizer's bankruptcy. Can such a guarantee really become a standard? The European Union's authorities believe so.
To this end, they have issued a directive which is intended to designate a direction throughout the community.
BASIC PROVISIONS OF THE ‘TURISTIC DIRECTIVE’
The EU authorities wanted the whole community to be equally safe from the tourist side. To this end, a directive has been issued, which the Member States had to implement this year. A scheme of related tourist services appears there.
Such a construction will occur when ‘single tourism services are merged within the framework of a single tourism product for which the organiser is responsible’. If the travel agency arranges a trip, it must take responsibility for everything - for example: transport, optional trips, or car rental.
The tourist event can be organized by several companies, but from the consumer perspective the travel agency is one. The directive is intended to prevent accidents in which the trip is flawed and the various people are blamed.
NOCLEG GUARANTEE
The most important and ambitious goal of EU regulation seems to be to guarantee undisturbed holidays also in the event of insolvency of the organiser. There are opinions that this is a breakthrough and forced accommodation on the beach is no longer a risk. Are you sure?
It can be imagined that the authorities of a wealthy country want to guarantee access to medical assistance at any time of day and night in any corner of the country. To this end, they pass a package of laws that assumes that any form of medical care will arrive at a certain time from the call regardless of the circumstances. Unfortunately, the amendment of the law would not provide any guarantee in this case, as concrete practical action and appropriate decisions would be needed in times of crisis.
The EU Directive sets the right direction, but real effectiveness remains unknown. No one can predict all possible scenarios of holiday complications and reliable methods to solve them, but thanks to the Directive, at least theoretically, we will become safer on vacation from 1 July 2018
source: https://www.forbes.pl/life/travel/dyrektywa-ue-przeciw-slabosciom-biur-podrozy/rpdjk2p
Author:
Andrzej Dmowski
Managing Partner Russell Bedford, Doctor of Legal Sciences, Lawyer, Tax Advisor, Restructuring Advisor, Certified Public Accountant – Expert Auditor in Ireland, Certified Fraud Examiner - Expert in Crime Detection and Abuse, Certified Internal Controls Auditor - International Internal Auditor.
Graduate of the University of Cambridge - British Centre for English and European Legal Studies - Faculty of Law and Administration, Graduate and Fellow of the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Warsaw.
Specializes in settlement of transactions between related entities - transfer pricing, legal and tax aspects of M&A and issues concerning derivatives of financial instruments.