Data protection act 1998 - PDF

Legislation and Ethics in Travel and tourism
Sector
Introduction
Tourism is all about pleasure while travelling and
considered as a theory and practice of touring across the
international level. Thomas Cook is a British global tourism
organization who is listed under London Stock Exchange
and formed on almost 19th June, 2007 by the merger of
Thomas Cook AG. Therefore, this assignment is going to
highlight the legal and regulatory provisions associated with
tourism industry, sea and surface. Moreover, major impact
of health and safety principles on tourism is also outlined in
the project and various legislations that are set by legal
bodies for contract procedures.
Legal and regulatory
framework of tourism sector
Legitimate bodies of UK is playing major role in protecting
consumers as well as tourism industry by various fraudulent
activities because number of issues are rose which affect the
goodwill of tourism sector. However, legal framework is a
very broad concept that covers all the norms, provisions,
rules and regulations as they get engaged in enacting acts
which help society in several manners. As, it has been
observed that tourism industry is getting increased day by
day and now it becomes one of the largest economic sector.
Thus, Thomas Cook is also one of the successful enterprises
in travelling industry by having almost number of branches
at international market. Their main objective is to offer
qualitative services to their desired consumers in order to
build their strong position at marketplace. Therefore,
number of regulations is established by legal bodies for
protecting tourism industry which is beneficial for Thomas
Cook. However, it differs country to country in several
terms and conditions (Battour, Ismail and Battor, 2010).
One of the international regulations are discussed as
follows-
Development of Tourism Act, 1969- This law is
implemented by UK bodies for providing establishment of
British Tourist Authority and Tourist Boards for England,
Scotland and Wales. Their main objective is to promote
development of tourism with Britain and across the globe by
providing financial assistance with the use of public funds.
It helps in enhancing various services for tourist while
travelling such as; hospitality, accommodation and many
more.
Law and Tourism
These both subjects are hard to understand because of high
range of complexity. For example; legal laws consist of issues
such as; environmental protection, safety and security of
individual, company law, contract law and so on. On the other
hand, tourism covers all the necessary rules and regulations of
the industry in which it also defend the interest of customers
that are travelling through various modes of transport. But,
provisions and norms of tourism industry is vary from country
to country because every nation having their own rules as per
distinct industries (Swanson and Edgell, 2013). Therefore, some
of the major laws that influence the travel industry are –
 First or foremost framework associated with
consumer protection from unfair trading
regulations 2008 that aids users from several
misleading, unfair commercial practices.
 Health and safety legislation- Main objective of
this act is to defend users from distinct type of risk
which might incurred at workplace by imposing
specific duties on both employee and employers.
Licensing Act 2003- According to this act, an individual or
organization get a legal permission for selling alcohol in their
premises. But, if this licences is not acquired then selling of
alcohol in late night is considered as a major offence and illegal
activity.
Sexual offence- This act replace the previous act of sexual
offence. As, this provision prohibited various illegal activities
such as; sex racket, child abuse .
Packaging Travel Regulations 1992- According to this
regulation, there are some rules which are applied while selling a
package holiday. Initially, Brochure contains all the necessary
information about tours. Although, there no legal requirement for
broker or travelling operator to offer brochure but still if they are
going to do so than that brochure needs to contain some of the
specific facts about entire trip.
Tourism industry is expanding more and more by coming up with various necessary provisions and orders
related with distinct type of transport facilities. For example; Thomas Cook is also engaged in expanding
their business services and trying to provide broad facilities to their customers. As several legal frameworks
supports in smooth functioning of whole travelling industry by controlling unusual activities that might
affect the success and Thomas cook also. Thus, some of the major legal laws related with transport system
are discussed as follows-
Sea and waterways regulation, Air transport regulations, Warsaw convention 1929, Montreal
Conference 1999, Denied boarding compensation schemes 1997, Carriage by air and road act 1976
Surface, sea and air transport law
Data protection act 1998- This
regulation is established by regulatory
framework for guiding tourism
industry that personal information
about customers or any other detail
need to be confidential. It means,
sharing of users, employees or any
other member is strictly prohibited
until and unless that person himself is
not allowing.
Apart from this, Industry is regulated
by- HSE-
 Well known as health and
safety at work act 1974.
 This is only legislation in
Great Britain which is in
favour of employee’s health
and security.
 This law is liable for
protecting staff members
which are performing at
workplace.
 Health and safety
commission-
 SRA-
 IATA
 CAA
 ATOL
 ABTA

Sea and waterways regulation- According to this legislation, there
are some passenger rights which are included in regulation No-
1177/2010 whomsoever are travelling through sea and inland
waterways. Basically, this applies on the passengers who are travelling
through-
 Ferry services consider as point of embarkment in
territory of member state.
 Cruise where point of embarkment is located in member
of state.
 Ferry services where the point of embarkment is outer
from territory of member state.
Basically, EU norms are not applied on the passengers who are travel
through-
 Ship that are certified to carry 12 passengers.
 Crew of ship which is liable for operating the ship.
Air transport regulations- Legitimate frameworks related
with air travelling services are falls under this. However, CAA is
responsible authority in UK as they are engaged in granting and
renewal of air traffic controller licence. Basically, flights to, from and
within the UK is done through air craft registered instead of UK are
regulated by secretary of state for transport.
Consumer protection legislation
Legal bodies have enacted several laws for protecting rights of various
members engaged in business. From which consumer protection
legislation are also enacted by authorities in travel and tourism sector
for protecting them from fraudulent activities which might incurred at
workplace. Some of the essential laws are amended by legal authority
for protecting consumers are discussed below-
Trade description act 1968- This provision is liable for
dealing with goods and services which are exchanged for trade.
However, this act is replaced by Merchandise Marks Act 1887 to
1957. Therefore, after this there are some other provisions are also
added associated with incorrect information of products and services
that are exchange for trading. Basically, main objective of this act is to
offer protection to the users who might go through mis-description of
goods and services through hotel. According to legal bodies, hotels are
obliged to provide products and services as per given description. If
the hotel get failed in providing same as per written description then
customer have an authority to claim hotel and sue then under Section
14 of the act (Mair and Jago, 2010).
Consumer PROTECTION ACT, 1987- First or foremost
target of this provision is to protect the interest of consumers which
shows that producer of goods are under liability and responsibility
towards their users. For example; if a customer is buying the product
then he/she have a legal right to know about the good such as;
manufacturing date, expiry, ingredients of goods and so on (Consumer
Protection Act, 2011). Apart from this, act also provides some of
additional rights to consumers which are described further-
 Protection from malpractice
 Unsafe goods.
Warsaw convention 1929-
 International carriage is described under this
convention.
 By this, passengers or consumers are fully
protected whenever they are using air
transport.
 This provision allows passenger to claim
compensation against losses whatever they
have suffered such as; damages, personal
injury or any other loss.
 At the same time, customers are also liable
for taking tickets while travelling.
Contract legislation in relation to travel and tourism
customers
Contract is an agreement which incurred between two or more parties on the basis of certain terms
and conditions in which obligations of both the parties is arise and these rights are enforced by
court members. Thomas Cook has entered into number of contracts with their suppliers,
consumers and many more shareholders in order to gain competitive advantage at marketplace.
Therefore, it is essential for organization to consider all the necessary elements before entering
into any contract either its customer or suppliers for minimizing probabilities of errors. However,
there are number of elements which shows that contract is really significant in tourism industry
that are described as follows-
 Passenger and travel organization must aware about this that they are legally connected
with each other such as; Thomas Cook is a Registered and well repudiated company
due to which every member knows that they are automatically legal connected with
organization.
 As per the specified agreement, travel organization is having a right to demand for
payment with their consumers and users have also authority to claim compensation
against same travel association if the promises are correctly fulfilled.
 Travel Company needs to informed their consumer about the contract which have
established between them.
 Moreover, tourism organization needs to discuss necessary terms and conditions with
consumer about contract.
Dickinson, J. and Lumsdon, L., 2010. Slow travel and tourism. Routledge.
Scheyvens, R., 2012. Tourism and poverty. Routledge.
Consumer Protection Act, 2011. [Online]. Available
through<http://adlib.everysite.co.uk/adlib/defra/content.aspx?doc=18278&id=18280>
References
Consequently, there are some essential elements are also identified which proves that the specific
contract is valid is discussed as follows-
OFFER- Initial step is to present offer in front of the other party and if other party accepted the
offer then it shows that both are get entered into contract.
Acceptance- After acceptance of offered contract shows that second element is also present in
contract.
Need of consideration- In order to make a valid contract there must be availability of few
conditions.
Intention of parties for creating legal relationship- It means that both the parties are having
capability for entering into legitimate contract such as minor are not allowed to get engaged in
legal agreements.
Terms and conditions- Certainty is requisite in contract otherwise it will not consider as valid.