Ethical Dilemmas in Travel and Tourism Sector

This report discusses various health and safety-related issues in the travel sector that need protection. It also covers different legislation and regulations related to tourism, ensuring equality and eliminating discrimination. The assignment helps understand how ethical dilemmas impact decision-making in companies and applies concepts of ethics to real-world situations.

Legislation and Ethics in the
Travel and Tourism Sector

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
Legal and regulatory framework of travel and tourism..........................................................1
Surface, sea and air transport laws ........................................................................................2
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
Impact of principle on health, safety and security legislation in travel & tourism................5
Analysis legislation that related to equality............................................................................7
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................8
Contract legislation in relation to travel and tourism customers-...........................................8
Consumer protection legislation in relation to travel and tourism customers......................10
Ethical dilemmas faced by travel & tourism sector..............................................................11
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policy of a specified travel and tourism business..12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................13
.......................................................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Ethics is also known as morale; it explains the concept of right and wrong code of
conduct of any activity. It also concerns about values and also include philosophy. Ethics defines
different concepts like vice, justice, crime, evil etc. on the other hand travel and tourism is a
practice which operate tours or attract, accommodate and entertain tourists. Tourism can be
domestic or it can be national/international (Baggio and Sainaghi, 2016). With the help of travel
and tourism sector, further in this report the concept of ethics will be understood. This report will
cover the complete legal & regulatory framework of this sector and how different modes of
transportation have different laws. Other than this health, safety and security legislation of tours
& travels will also be discussed and how consumer protection is related to this sector.
TASK 1
Legal and regulatory framework of travel and tourism
This framework of travel and tourism include different things as per the parties involved
in it like contractor, customers, suppliers etc. This sector and legal laws & legislation are also
connected with each other because of many reasons because when different parties have
interaction among them it is very important to have some kind of legislation or regulatory
framework for protecting their interest.
 Tourist act, 1980 & 1985: Under this act UK government regulate and control the routes
of transportation companies and also regulate their private and national buses. With the
establishment of this act, licensing regulation was ended for the tours over 30 miles. these
deregulation by government has removed restrictions from this business to some extent
that it has increased the competition & also reduced the price for customers.
 Tourism act 1969: According to this act, British Tourist Authority focuses on
coordinating and organization tourism operations. Main purpose behind establishment of
this act is to develop the tourism sector by proving financial help to them for making new
hotels or renovating the already existing one (Becker, 2015).
 Package travel and tour regulation,1992: This regulatory frame works of travel &
tourism exist for protecting the customers from travel operators so that later does not shift
their responsibilities to former. In other words, this act says that tour operator has to
provide all the required information to their customers before booking holiday as well as
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after booking it. This is so because it is important for travelers to know in advance how,
when and where they will be going. This act also includes that holiday company will take
care of the performance of services like hotel, airline, cruise operators etc.
Major reason behind having these regulatory frameworks is because it creates an standard
procedure to perform the activities, other than this it also develop the tourism industry
and create some legal rights for customers as well as for organizations (Becker, 2016).
 Office of Rail and Road (ORR), 2004 : It is government department responsibility for
safety and economic regulation of railways and roadways. They regulates network rail
through setting of various activities and taking funds from control period. This was
formed in 2004 which ensure monitoring highways for improvements. It was developed
by Railways and Transport Safety Act and helping government for road and railway
safety.
 Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), 1988: This legislation is responsible for aviation safety
of consumers. It helps in determining various policies which are required to be used for
airspace, economic regulation, licensing, financial fitness of airline and others. There are
many people who travel through airline, it is CAA responsibility to take care of those
user and people. This provide benefits to users and consumers for availing facilities of
airline industry.
 Mental Capacity Act (MCA), 2005: This legislation is act of parliament at United
Kingdom which is applied to Wales and England. The main aim of such legislation is
providing legal framework for making decisions and acting on those people behave who
lack mental capacity. This can help mental people who cannot make effective decisions
for themselves. In order to fall under such category, they are some principles which need
to be followed by legislation.
Surface, sea and air transport laws
As per the article 3, there are two terms involved in it and i.e. carriage and career, it is a
person who have an agreement or contract between carriage and carrier. Other than this it also
involves two more terms, passenger (person who is transported by ship) and luggage is an article
which career caries.
 Surface law: This law has been made for protecting the interest of transportation of
goods and passengers as well as it safeguards the disabled person abroad. As per the
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International Carriage of Passenger by Road Act,1979 govern the country’s surface. The
purpose of its existence is to protect travellers or passengers who are on board. It
includes remedies under this law are physical/mental disorder, damage of passengers
while they are in carrier. As per the railways act,1972 it protects the luggage from any
damage (Cohen, Duncan and Thulemark, 2015).
 Sea law: This law is related to the water transport; UN created an organization for the
safety and safeguard of shipping which is known as International Maritime Organization.
Other than this, it is made for protecting the environment from operation of ships. The
International convention for the Safety at sea i.e. SOLAS has been made for regulating
the protection instruments while travelling through sea like fire protection measures in
ships, firefighting skills of crew members and all the lifesaving equipment. Damage of
good or passengers while travelling through the ships is governed by The Athens
Convention,1974. They also provide compensation to the passengers who get affected.
 Air law: These laws are related to the travelling through air like helicopters, air plane etc.
it involves numerous legislation, one of them is The Warsaw Convention,1929 according
to which there are some rules of documents have been made for international carriage. If
any disaster happens then passers are eligible for the compensation of their injury or for
the death of any family member. It also says that there should be luggage check criteria
before starting the journey. But it is replaced by another system called Warsaw system
with a single instrument. Apart from this five-freedom agreement of 1944 is also there
which is having some rules for traffic while landing across territory, cargo and non-traffic
passenger landing (Cucculelli and Goffi, 2016).
Their are various other laws which are included under the regulatory framework of travel
and tourism, these are classified as follows-
 Criminal Laws- This law generally deals with the behaviour which is considered offense
against the individuals within the society. Therefore it is a specific body of law which deals with
crime and legal punishment. Its examples includes robbery, murder etc. Therefore this law
provides protection to the tourist from any offense activities conducted against them.
 Civil Laws- These are the laws which deals with the disputes between the individuals
and the organisation and award and compensation is awarded to the victim. It deals with
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the cases filed by the private party as well as protects the tourist if there is any
misconduct or conflict with tour operator or organisation.
Court System- These are divided into two civil courts and Criminal Courts
Civil Courts- It is a governmental institution which focuses on removing issues and settle
disputes between two or more entities. Court normally tries to solve criminal cases. This will be
able to effective regulate Travel and Tourism Sector.
 Supreme Court- It is the largest court and the powerful within the hierarchy of courts
which is responsible for the final judgement of all the cases .
 Court of appeal- It is the senior and the highest court within England and Wales, its
main function is to hear appealing from Crown courts and confiscates the order which is
been imposed by the Crown Court.
 High court- High court is the superior of all the courts and takes consideration of high
value cases and also which have supervisory jurisdiction of all the subordinate courts
with some statutory exceptions.
 County Court- This court covers jurisdiction of one or more countries and have effective
administrative divisions within countries so that there is no confusion between the
medieval system and effective decisions can be taken.
Criminal Courts
 Supreme Courts- It is the first court of appeal and act as an advisory court which have
specific hearings on the matters which are referred by the President.
 Court of Appeal- It works as an intermediate court which hears cases on request by the
local courts and solves criminal cases of states.
 High Court- High Court consist of various judges top handle civil and criminal cases,
under criminal cases these are assigned to divisional courts with a bench of two or more
judges and further decisions are referred to the supreme court.
 Crown Court- It is a court of criminal jurisdiction, hence deals with the serious offences
as been referred from magistrate courts.
 Magistrate Court- These court have minimum power over civil and criminal matters,
these handle appeals of small criminal cases.
Sources of Law
 Case Law- It is the law which is established from the outcomes of the former cases.
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 Legislations- It is a statutory law which is been enacted by a legislature and has some
control on the business in the way they operate.
 EU law- It stands for European Union Law which operates within the member states of
EU, therefore it represents a new legal order for international law.
1.2 Regulatory bodies, legislations and International Conventions
 Office of rail and road regulation- It is a framework set by UK and EU legislations
and works as an independent statutory body and is responsible for setting strategy
in providing safety to the tourist in rail and road transportation.
 Maritime and cost guard agency- This law prevents the loss of life of the tourist at the
sea or the coastal areas and provides prevention against the loss to the individuals.
 Civil aviation Authority- It is the statutory corporation which are responsible for
overseeing and regulation of the civil aviations in UK.
International Conventions
 London 1972 Sea travel- This prevents marine pollution by avoiding dumping of
waste and protects the marine environment.
 Geneva 1968 on road- It is an international treaty designed to facilitate international
road traffic by establishing proper traffic rules and promotes safety of tourists.
 Warsaw 1928- It is related to certain rules and regulations relating to international
carriage and regulates liability for carriage of individuals.
 Tokio 1963- This convention states that there are certain powers with aircraft commander
which on international flights may restrain any individual who is about to commit offence
and interfere with the safety of persons.
TASK 2
Impact of principle on health, safety and security legislation in travel & tourism
There are number of laws made for protecting health of individual person who is
travelling and this is done through health and safety act 1974 in which person’s safety and
security are also considered as important thing. According to this act whatever employees do;
their employers get blamed for it or held responsible for it. Both employees and employers have
their own duties, they perform best to minimize the uncertainty and in maintaining the
company’s safety. Major purpose behind this regulation is to make the working environment
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safe. Health and safety commission do a regular research or as per requirement for this law to
know if it is working properly or not and to ensure it, they follow these steps:
 Guidelines: In first step health and safety operator try to find out the knowledge among
individuals about the legislation. They also guide and provide people in fulfilling those
legislation (Giap, Gopalan and Ye, 2016).
 Approved code of practice: This practice is made for making sure that there is not any
hazardous practice or material is in use on this sector which harm the people or travellers.
In case of breach of any agreement or policy, employer of the company will be liable for
the compensation to the party who get harmed in this practice. According to approved
code of practice duties & responsibilities of employees are-:
They should take corrective action which help them in preventing accidents from
happening.
Employees need to take all the training sessions so that they can learn to deal with
different situation which can save life their life as well as of others.
Next responsibility of employees of tour & travel company is to inform about it to their
employers in can they fell possibility of happening anything.
 Regulations: According to this, employers have responsibility to make sure that there is
proper lightening, first aid and other requirements which is needed in case of risk and in
situation of accidents. Having all this also make travellers satisfied and relieved about
their trips. It also says that there should be written health and safety guide which can be
distributed among them so that they can know how to save themselves and others.
Following are the safety code that every tour company need to follow-
if company is hiring new candidates, they need to train them before assigning them any
tasks. They should also train their existing employees to upgrade their knowledge and
skills. Other than this organization need to always conduct mock drills related to fire.
fighting and evacuation to keep their mind always ready for situations. Employees also
need to provide handbooks of safety and advise sessions are conducted (Flaherty, 2017).
Health and Safety Executive- It is a governmental agency which is primary responsible
for the encouragement, regulation and provides betterment at the work place, health, safety and
welfare of the individuals. It specifically applies to the tour operators industries by proving
employees with safety and security at the work place,
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Analysis legislation that related to equality
As per the equality act 2010, it focuses on equality of citizens and employees so that
there is no chance of discrimination. This act is the addition to the ‘equal pay act 1970, gender
discrimination act1975, race relation act 1976, disability discrimination act1995, employment
equality (sexual regulation) regulation 2003, employment equality (age) regulation 2006 etc. In
this legislation, tour operator’s duty is to ensure that every customer get treated equally by
offering them all the services without any discrimination. On the other hand, purpose of sex
discrimination act, is to save people & employees from unfairness related to marriage and sex for
providing training or employment education (Guttentag, 2015).
Equality- It means that every person is treated equally because in the eyes of law every
individual is equal and they does not get discriminated in any way.
Discrimination- It means that people are biased and they are not treating everyone
equally by creating difference between them in the name of sex, age, religion and castes.
 Racial discrimination act 1956- As per this law, government has put regulations on
people to treat any individual unequal on the basis of their color, nationality, origin, race
or ethnic. These are mainly created for protecting the interest of employees, education
and housing because they face these unfairnesses most.
 Human right act 1998- This is the UK’s act which was passed in 1998 for adding
individual right which are included in European convention in UK rights.
 Disability discrimination act – This act has been made to protect the interest of disabled
person in field of education, employment, housing and many more (Mason, 2015).
 Sex discrimination act- Again this act is also based on education, employment,
harassment etc. according to this act under section 87 in UK act of parliament, it gives
equal rights and protection to men and women. It says that both genders should be given
equal rights as well as equal payment / salary for same posts.
 Employment protection consolidation act 1998- This act is made to protect public and
private sector’s employees & employers in their workplace. In case of pregnancy, this act
provides maternity leave to the workers of organization.
 Human Rights Act 1988- It is a UK law which allows the individuals to defend their
rights on concern to treat everyone with equality and justice.
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 Equality Act 2010- This act ensures that discrimination should be avoided and equality
should be maintained within the work place and society.
 Sex Discrimination Act 1976- This ensures that men and women's should not be
discriminated within UK on the grounds of sex and marital status.
 Disability Discrimination Act- 1995- This act is concerned with disabled individuals
should not be discriminated on the basis of employment and facilities and services and in
regard of the provision of goods.
TASK 3
Contract legislation in relation to travel and tourism customers-
Contract is an agreement in which two or more than two parties are involved with some
agenda. These contracts have rights and obligation of both side which can be enforced by the
court. It is important because it bound the passenger and company legally in an agreement with
each other which in future help them right to claim or get compensation in case of breach of
contract or non fulfilment of promise. It is the responsibility of travel company to inform
customers about the contract and to discuss the terms and conditions with them before taking any
advance or payment. On the other word passengers should not be kept in dark by tour operators
because hiding information can be dangerous for the company (Polat, 2015). There are elements
for a valid legal contract and that are-
 Offer- It is a proposal which is given by one party to the other party and once both of
them agrees upon it become legally enforceable. For example, when a family wants to go
on a holiday, they search for a tour operator and get in contact with them. After hearing
all the needed services and requirement of travellers, tour operator agrees to fulfil their
wish and ask them to fill a form with necessary details. That form also have some terms
and conditions of the company which passengers need to read carefully before signing it
or making payment. Reason behind these T&C is that everybody knows what will be the
consequences of mentioned things (Sreejesh and Abhilash, 2017).
 Acceptance- After reading terms and conditions on papers and by understanding it, if the
person agrees they can sign it which becomes the contract between the two. This
acceptance is made after discussing every little details with the tour operator so that there
is chance of confusion between any of them.
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 Consideration- It is important part of a valid contract because for taking the services
from tour operator, passengers need to pay some specified amount to them. This make the
agreement legal one and even the amount received by organizers are also written on the
contract for the future purpose.
 Capacity- For making the contract valid it should not be made with a minor person
because doing this will make the contract void.
 Certainty- This means that the passengers need to give the exact and detailed
information about their requirement so that tour operator can arrange that for them.
Supply of goods & services act 1988: This contract says that tour operator needs to
gives services to their passengers as per the written in contract. Like making available hotel
rooms according to the requirement then taking care to cleanliness etc.
 Holiday contract: This contract has terms and conditions related to rooms, hotels or
place, location, date etc. package details, regulation of customers, duration of stay, details
regarding place to stay, destination etc.
 The Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 - This act protect the weak parties from being
getting dominated by the the exclusion clauses as they would allow debtor to take off
their liability during event of non performance of obligation.
 Unfair Terms in Consumer Contract Regulation 1999- This act regulates contact by
restricting operations and legality of some contact acts.
 Sale of goods Act 1979 – This act ensures that goods that are bought and sold in UK
should be of satisfactory quality, moreover any defect or issue should be made clear to
the individuals. This states that any issue regarding accommodation and travelling
should be made clear to the tourist before purchasing the tour package.
 Supply of Goods and Service Act 1982- This act ensures that traders within UK should
provide appropriate and standard services to the individual.
 The consumer Rights Act 2015- This act is concerned about the rights iof individual
against the faulty goods for refund and replacement or repair and adding new rights on
consumer purchase of digital content.
Consumer protection legislation in relation to travel and tourism customers
 Trade description act- This is the act which made for protecting the customers from the
misconduct or breach of agreement by the travel agents. For example, at the time of
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taking payment, travel operator promises to book a hotel in porch location but when
traveller reaches there, they find it something else which is not according to the
description given by agent (Timothy, 2016).
 Consumers protection act 1987- This act is made to protect the customers from any
fraudulent activities so that they do not get mislead by anyone. For example, when a
buyer goes to the market for shopping anything, they have full right to ask everything
about that product like date of manufacturing, expiry date, ingredients in it, way to apply,
price, quantity etc. similarly in case of tours and travellers, passengers or travellers have
full right to ask everything about the package and offers of the company. This is done to
protect the customers from malpractices and from unsafe products (Tse, 2015).
 Package travel regulation- According to this law, passenger’s need to be told
everything. Tour operators should not hide anything from travellers related to tour. It
includes adequate information facilities, risks, offers etc. if agent is unable to fulfil these
mentioned things, it can be taken as breach of contract or unfair trading.
 Regulation 2008: This act is related to protection from unfair trading by giving
misleading information in the form of article, broacher, advertisements etc.
 ABTA definition- It stands for association of Association of British Travel agents which
designed to cover holidays in UK and provides protection to the consumer against hotel,
flights cost by providing them their money back.
 ATOL definition It stands for ait traveller organiser's license which provides final
protection schemes and protects the customer regarding air package holidays.
 European Packages Travel definition – These packages provides specific protection
and facility to the customer regarding providing luxurious tour packages in European
countries.
 Food safety Act 1990 definition- This act provides safety to the consumer regarding the
consumption of food and effectively regulate manufacture, sales and storage of food
products.
Ethical dilemmas faced by travel & tourism sector
Ethics- It explains the concept of right and wrong code of conduct of any activity. It
also concerns about values and also include philosophy. Ethics defines different concepts like
vice, justice, crime, evil etc. and it is different to numerous organization-
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Ethical dilemma- It is a difficult decision making problem and creates situation in which
difficult choice has to made in context to two course of action. This situation can be effectively
dealt with analysing the both the situation properly and identify pros and cons effectively and
selects the best one.
When the people misuse the assets of the company it is against the ethics of employment and
organization, excessive consumption of drugs and alcohol is against the human ethics. People
destructing and creating pollution by their activities are breach of environmental ethics.
Business ethics- When ethics are followed in organization it is known as business ethics
which is the guideline for regulating behaviour.
There are many factors of tours and travels industry which is needed to be controlled
while it is developing & growing. These factors include management, hospitality etc. Hospitality
is about creating a relationship with customers as well as fulfilling its needs & requirements and
They should also be offered services on best prices. There are also some dilemmas like cross
culture, political instability which very much affect the travel and tourism sector in particular
location. For example, unrest government of Russia & Syria has affected their tourism to a great
extent. Apart from all this social and cultural factor are also affecting this sector (Vellas, 2016).
Customers are divided on some basis like their age and economy which help tour companies to
deal with paper work accordingly as per the category of passenger. Corruption, bribery, sexual
harassment, harming natural resources, sale of unhealthy food etc. are the most recent and
common dilemmas which is affecting this sector. Apart from this, it has been also found out that
numbers of child labor has increased for employment reasons in many developing countries.
Many countries have laws for women rights in their workplace so make sure that they get equal
opportunities while working with men.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policy of a specified travel and tourism business
Corporate social responsibility encompasses of the practices undertaken by the business
to provide socio economic and environmental benefits to the stakeholders within the society. For
example travel and tourism industry should protect the environment by minimising the pollution
and the waste and should provide services without harming the environment. Corporate social
responsibility is when business organizations chooses some strategy toward, they country. CSR
include activities like protecting environment, giving equal opportunities, practising sustainable
development. Tourism company discuss their requirements & responsibilities with the local
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authorities. Protecting heritage, environmental sources and social valuable are the are the
objective of tourism organizations. They want to preserve natural resources which in return
encourages the tourism sector (Vorobjovas‐Pinta and Hardy, 2016). Along with all this they are
also occupied in philanthropy for charity. Corporate social responsibility is also working on
protecting wildlife endangered species and promoting cot effective rates for their customers to
attract them. In today phase, companies provide CSR to survive in the society and for
contributing in its betterment. By doing such activities they are contributing in countries social
responsibilities-
 By making involvement in the society through providing local workers with employment
opportunities so that poverty & unemployment can be eradicated from the society. Other
than this by making fair trade practices and giving charity.
 By making involvement in environment through effectively managing the waste of the
company. It protects the environment by recycling the waste items of the company and
by preserving bio-diversity.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been concluded that there are many health and safety related
issues in travelling sectors which need to be protected. This assignment has helped in learning
the different legislation and regulations related to the travel and tourism sector which treat every
one equal and eliminate the discrimination from the society. Other than this how ethical
dilemmas are impacting the decision making of the company is also understood by applying it to
different situations. Concept of ethics in business, environment and in humanity has also been
discussed in detail which helped in understanding its important.
REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Baggio, R. and Sainaghi, R., 2016. Mapping time series into networks as a tool to assess the
complex dynamics of tourism systems. Tourism Management. 54. pp.23-33.
Becker, E., 2015. The revolt against tourism. New York Times. 17.
Becker, E., 2016. Overbooked: The exploding business of travel and tourism. Simon and
Schuster.
Cohen, S. A., Duncan, T. and Thulemark, M., 2015. Lifestyle mobilities: The crossroads of
travel, leisure and migration. Mobilities. 10(1). pp.155-172.
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Cucculelli, M. and Goffi, G., 2016. Does sustainability enhance tourism destination
competitiveness? Evidence from Italian Destinations of Excellence. Journal of Cleaner
Production. 111. pp.370-382.
Flaherty and et. al., 2017. The highs and lows of drug tourism: a travel medicine perspective.
Journal of travel medicine. 24(6).
Giap, T., Gopalan, S. and Ye, Y., 2016. Drivers of growth in the travel and tourism industry in
Malaysia: A Geweke causality analysis. Economies. 4(1). p.3.
Guttentag, D., 2015. Airbnb: disruptive innovation and the rise of an informal tourism
accommodation sector. Current issues in Tourism. 18(12). pp.1192-1217.
Mason, P., 2015. Tourism impacts, planning and management. Routledge.
Polat, N., 2015. Technical innovations in cruise tourism and results of sustainability. Procedia-
Social and Behavioral Sciences. 195. pp.438-445.
Sreejesh, S. and Abhilash, P., 2017. Investigating the process through which e-servicescape
creates e-loyalty in travel and tourism websites. Journal of Travel & Tourism
Marketing. 34(1). pp.20-39.
Timothy, D. J., 2016. Relationships between tourism and international boundaries. In Tourism
and borders (pp. 29-38). Routledge.
Tse, T. S., 2015. A review of Chinese outbound tourism research and the way forward. Journal
of China Tourism Research. 11(1). pp.1-18.
Vellas, F., 2016. The international marketing of travel and tourism: A strategic approach.
Macmillan International Higher Education.
Vorobjovas‐Pinta, O. and Hardy, A., 2016. The evolution of gay travel research. International
Journal of Tourism Research. 18(4). pp.409-416.
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