Legislation and Ethics in the Travel and Tourism Sector: A Comprehensive Analysis

This report delves into the intricate legal and ethical landscape of the travel and tourism sector. It examines the legal framework governing surface, sea, and air transport, analyzes the impact of health, safety, and security legislation, and explores consumer protection laws. The report also investigates ethical dilemmas faced by the industry, highlighting the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and its implementation in a prominent travel and tourism business, Thomas Cook UK Limited.

Legislation and Ethics in Travel and Tourism Sector
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................4
1.1 Explain the legal and regulatory framework of the travel and tourism sector.......................4
1.2 Discuss surface, sea and air transport law in relation to the carriage of passengers within
the legal and regulatory framework.............................................................................................7
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................9
2.1 Evaluate the impact of principle of health, safety and security legislation on the travel and
tourism sector...............................................................................................................................9
2.2 Analyse legislation that relates to equality..........................................................................10
Task 3.............................................................................................................................................11
3.1 Explain contract legislation in relation to travel and tourism customers.............................11
3.2 Explain consumer protection legislation in relation to travel and tourism customers.........13
Task 4.............................................................................................................................................16
4.1 Analyse ethical dilemmas faced by the travel and tourism sector.......................................17
4.2 Analyse the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of a specified travel and tourism
business......................................................................................................................................18
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................19
References......................................................................................................................................20
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Introduction
This report analyses the diverse aspects of travel and tourism with their legislation. It is
fragmented into four parts. The first part helps to understand the regulatory and legal frame work
in context to travel and tourism sector. It also discusses the laws in relation to the passenger such
as sea, surface and air transport. In part second it evaluates the legislation in respect of health,
safety and security and also the concept of equality. The third part helps to analyses the concept
of the consumer in relation to the Thomas cook with the help of different legislation. The fourth
part helps to understand the role and significance of business ethics and dilemmas that can face
by the tourism and travel sector. It also emphasis on the concept of CSR and how it helps to the
community.
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Task 1
1.1 Explain the legal and regulatory framework of the travel and tourism sector.
Introduction
This leaflet, explain the
various regulations and
legislation in the context of
the tourism as well as
travel. It includes the
different regulations such
as Strategic Rail Authority
(SRA), Health and safety
commission (HSC), Air
Travel Operators Licensing
(ATOL). Regulation
ensures the contractual
obligations between the
parties.
Package Tours Regulations
1992:
A package tour is the package
holiday that consists of the
accommodation and transport
and sold by the vendor. The
package holidays are
organized by the tour operator
and that sold the services to
the customer. It is essential
for the Thomas cook to follow
the rules and regulations. The
package tour is governed by
the package tours regulations
1992(Coteanu, 2017).
Development of Tourism Act,
1969:
This act is related to the issue
of British Tourist Authority
that helps to expand and
promote the development of
tourism. They also provide
the finance and funds to
Conclusion
From the leaflet, it can be
determined that there are diverse
legislation and regulations that
support and provide the aids to
organization to perform their
obligations and rights.
Legal framework: There
are diverse measures that
can be performed in the
organization.
Health and safety
commission
It is the statutory body that
can be established under
the UK law. It is governed
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under the Health and Safety
at work Act, 1974. It
ensures the safety and
healthy environment at the
work place. It also
encourages the individuals
to achieve the operations of
the objectives.
Air Travel Organiser’s
licensing (ATOL):
It is necessary for the
operators to hold the ATOL
license, without that license
they can’t be able to
perform the contract. The
main objective of the
ATOL is to provide the
refunds that can be affected
by the activity and due to
that they can’t provide the
services to their customers.
modify the existing hotels and
form the hotels and
restaurants.
Regulatory Framework:
Different regulations are
framed for the sector of travel
and tourism. It consists of
Health and Safety Executive
(HSE) and Strategic Rail
Authority (SRA).
Regulations are incorporated
to the tourism as well as travel
sector. It consists of Health
and Safety Executive (HRA)
and Strategic Rail Authority
(SRA)
Strategic Rail Authority
(SRA)
It provides the strategic
direction to the railway
industry. The main function
of this authority is to ensure
and awards the compliance
with the passenger with rail
franchises(Moutinho and
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Vargas-Sanchez, 2018).
Health and Safety Executive
(HSE):
It focuses on the health and
safety issues. It ensures the
safety issues within the
Thomas cook. It also provides
the safe environment and
analyses the risks in the
Thomas cook.
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1.2 Discuss surface, sea and air transport law in relation to the carriage of passengers
within the legal and regulatory framework.
Introduction
This leaflet analyses the issues
of different laws that are in
relation to the passengers.
These issues are analysed
according to their legal
perspective. It also discusses
the surface, sea, and air
transport law.
Sea law
It relates to the rules and
principles that interact in
maritime matters. The law of
sea monitors the
environmental factors and also
provides the security in
context to a matter of sea. It
protects from the safety of fire
and also to the visitors against
the fire and injury. The main
objective of this law is to
protect the passenger from the
hazardous activity that is
operated at the sea.
Surface law
This law is governed through
the International carriage of
passenger Road Act 1979; it
protects the obligations and
rights of the visitors who
travelled around the world.
There are various regulations
that can be framed for the
passengers as they provide the
services and there is a contract
between the organizer and
transport operator(Kötz,
2017).
Air law
This law is governed by the
Airport Act 1986 and Airports
order, it is rehabilitated by
civil aviation and privatized
the British Airports Authority
as a private organization. It is
the authority of CAA to
inspect the actions that are
performing at the time of air
Conclusion
From this leaflet, it can be
determined that there are
diverse legislation and
regulations that are created to
protect the visitors against the
risks and hazards. It can be
identified by analysing the
surface law, Air law, sea law
etc.
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transport. It consists of the
claim and compensation
provisions and that can be
provided to the passenger who
suffers injury and loss due to
the activities.
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Task 2
Executive Summary: Legislations are essential in every industry and tourism sector is no
exception. In this report, the organization has been chosen, namely Thomas Cook UK Limited
and the impacts of principles of safety, health, and security have been discussed in reference to.
To add more to the understanding, the analysis of legislation that provides equality to everyone
working in the organisation and discards the issues like discrimination is done.
Introduction
In any country, legislations are valuable to promote societal norms, guidelines, and standards. In
tourism industry, they play a crucial role in promoting ethical practices. In this report, a
discussion on different aspects of health and safety laws and their impact on tourism organisation
will be done. Furthermore, the impacts of equality law will be analysed.
2.1 Evaluate the impact of principle of health, safety and security legislation on the travel
and tourism sector.
The health, safety, and security laws strictly focus on the vulnerabilities and hazards in the
tourism sector. It safeguards the lives of those who are associated with this industry by
minimising the chances of occurrence of accidents. The major aim is to create a safe
environment where everyone can work without any worries regarding their lives (Hoffmann,
2012). It obligates Thomas Cook (UK) Limited to take measure to improve the working
condition of their premises and if in any case, a tragedy occurs, then carry out inspections and
report the entire scenario as soon as possible.
The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, defines the role, duties and responsibilities of the
managers working at Thomas Cook (UK) Limited to provide health and safety to those who
work under them. It also states the guidelines to enforce the legislation regarding the health and
welfare in the organisation operating in the UK. In addition to those, it also defines the duties of
employees and contractors, suppliers, managers, etc., (Landsbergis, et.al, 2014). Apart from this,
the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1984 covers the duties of the occupier to take care of the visitors
and the trespassers, provided that the occupier has knowledge about the vulnerabilities or
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existing danger and that a visitor might be near to it. Another act to protect the data of the citizen
of the UK is the Data Protection Act 1998. This act safeguards the personal information and data
of everyone living in the UK against the data security breach.
The impacts of the aforementioned laws were quite effective in safeguards the people and lives
against some major laws. The employers become obligated to provide safe environment,
machineries, first-aid facilities, ambulance facilities in work premises, especially in areas that are
more prone to accidents. Health and safety codes are being followed as described by the National
Health Agency (NHS) and World Health Organisation (WHO). Thomas Cook (UK) Limited is
directed to formulate the HR policy to manage the proper health and safety in the working area
and to inform the employees about their right to safe working environment. Moreover,
organisations are informed to provide special training to the employees so as to make them
friendly with the equipment used in the working area. Mock drills are being organised regularly
to counter any emergency situation.
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2.2 Analyse legislation that relates to equality.
The Equality Act, 2010, safeguard the rights of the citizen of the United Kingdom against any
kind of discrimination based on caste, religion, sex, social status, economic condition, age,
disability, etc. It obligates the management of Thomas Cook (UK) Limited to treat every
employee working in his/her organisation equally, fairly, and respectfully. In addition to this, this
law guides the employers to make some adjustment in the job for the persons with disability so
that they could compete with the normal employees (Scamper, et.al, 2014).
The Act harmonises, foster, and simplifies the present laws in order to provide the UK with a
new law against all kinds of discrimination and empowers them to be treated equally in the
society. It is now an umbrella for nine of the existing legislations that are mentioned below:-
 The Sex Discrimination Act 1975 The Equal Pay Act 1970 The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 The Race Relations Act 1976 The Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003 The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 The Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003 The Equality Act 2006, Part 2 The Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007
The law obligates the employers to carry out an inspection of any kind of discrimination (direct
or indirect) and prepare a report of it. It ensures that men and women get equal pay or benefits
for same kind of job. Workers associated with public or private sector or any NGO, have a legal
right to promote and establish equal opportunities.
In addition to this, it provides the managers of Thomas Cook (UK) Limited a right to ask about
health-related issues in order to know whether the aspirant can do a particular kind of a job or not
and take positive action to aid the disables to work together with the non-disables.
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Conclusion
In this report, the laws regarding the health and safety of the citizens of the United Kingdom was
discussed briefly. In addition to this, the influence of health, safety, and security legislation was
highlighted. Some other laws, such as legislation for data protection was also discussed. In the
end of this report, the analysis of the law for equality was done.
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Task 3
3.1 Explain contract legislation in relation to travel and tourism customers
Introduction
In this leaflet, it analyses the
different aspects of contract in
relation to the travel and
tourism. According to the
scenario, the assistant of
Thomas cook form
transactions with other tour
operator and customers, the
clients are not satisfied with
the services. So as the
manager, it helps to
understand the laws in relation
to tourism and travel.
Acceptance:
It plays an important part in
the contract. When the clients
accepted the offer which was
provided by the Thomas cook
that is known as acceptance.
The customers accepted on the
terms and conditions.
Consideration: Consideration
is essential in the contract as
without consideration there is
no agreement. For example,
Thomas cook sells the services
and the clients purchase their
services and pay the amount.
The amount is recognized as
the consideration in respect of
services(Hollick, 2017).
Capacity: Capacity means the
capability of performing the
contract. The party should be
major and of sound mind so
that he/she can easily
understand the terms of
contract. He/she does not
Conclusion
This leaflet determines the
essentials and importance of
contract law in context to
tourism as well as travel
sector. It also discuss the
clause of termination that
provides the remedy to the
visitor to reject the contract , if
the Thomas cook does not
fulfil the terms and conditions
according to the agreement.
Contract
It is an agreement that is
formed between two parties.
The agreement is enforced by
law can be sated as the
contract. A contract is created
when both parties agreed on
the terms and conditions that
can be stated by the Thomas
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cook . Thomas cook is
accountable to provide the
better and reliable services in
relation to the conditions of
contract. They are under
obligation to fulfil all the
requirements such as schedule
of flights with the information.
It can be analyses that if the
Thomas cook does not provide
the better services then the
visitors has right to terminate
the contract (Vega, 2017).
Important requirements are to
fulfilled to form the contract,
that is given below:
Elements of contract
Offer: It is the promise that
can be performed in trade for
performance by another party.
The Thomas cook provides the
services and offers them to
purchase the packages. There
are two parties the one who
makes the offer is offer or and
the other party who accepts is
offeree.
disqualified by law.
Certainty: The contract should
be certain, which means that it
should be in proper and
reliable form that helps the
parties to understand easily.
The Thomas cook provides the
relevant information that has
the meaning, if they did not
provide the relevant
information then it affects the
contract and it is considers as
the void contract.
Enforceability: To make the
valid contract, it is necessary
to enforce without the
enforcement the contract can’t
be implement properly. There
should be legal consideration
behind the contract(Kamanga,
2017).
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3.2 Explain consumer protection legislation in relation to travel and tourism customers
Introduction
This leaflet helps to
understand the different
legislation of consumer in
respect of travel and tourism.
It can be observed that there
are certain obligations and
duties provided to the
consumers and that is
necessary to be protected. It
includes the Trade description
Act, 1968, Package Travel
Regulations 1992, Consumer
Protection Act, 1987 etc.
Consumer Protection Act,
1987:
In this legislation, it is under
duty bound to provide the
services in relation to the
health and safety laws. It
protects the consumer against
the high price, bad quality in
the services. The Thomas
cook has to charge the
minimum and cheaper prices
for the services so that every
individual can purchase the
packages (Howells and
Weatherill, 2017).For
example, Thomas cook has to
provide the services and
packages and that should be
complying with the standards
and codes. They did not
provide any harmful and
hazardous services to their
customers.
Conclusion
From the above leaflet, it can
be determined that the
consumer plays a significant
role in Thomas cook. It is
essential for the Thomas cook
to frame the laws and
regulations to prevent the
injury and risks. It can be
evaluated with different acts
such as Trade description Act,
1968 and consumer protection
act, 1987.
Consumer Protection Law
These laws are designed to
prevent the Thomas cook that
is engaged in unfair practices
and fraud form gaining the
advantage over a competitor.
The main aim of the consumer
is to protect the interest of
clients against the untrue
statement and misleading
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information. It is the
accountability of the Thomas
cook to provide the necessary
information in context of
various packages that are
offered by the tour operators.
They are responsible to
provide the true and relevant
information so that the
consumers does not affect by
the misrepresentation. Diverse
legislations are framed in
context to the consumers that
are given below:
Legislations
Trade description Acts 1968:
This act prevents the
manufacturers and retailers
from providing the wrong and
misleading the clients as the
organizations is offering the
different services. In this case,
the court has power to punish
the individuals and
organizations who are offering
the bad services. The main
purpose of this act is to
prohibit the untrue and false
information and data which
Package travel regulations,
1992:
The main reason behind this
act is to charge the minimum
for the facilities and services
that can be stated by the
Thomas cook. They are under
duty bound to charge the low
minimum price so that the
customers did not affect from
that. It can be analyses that if
the Thomas cook provides the
services at the minimum
charges then every visitor can
easily purchase the tour
package. It also includes all
the facilities as provided in
the brochure of Thomas cook.
If the visitors observed that
the services and facilities are
not up to the mark then in that
case, they will be responsible
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are received in relation to the
services. For example, If
Thomas cook provides any
misleading information to
their clients then they are
responsible for the penalty and
they have to pay compensation
for that.
for the damage (Di
Domenico. and Miller, 2012).
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Task 4
Executive Summary: The tourism industry is quite intricate to understand due to the factors that
cause dilemmas to travellers and which have become tough to handle. These factors are affecting
the growth of this industry. In this report, some of those dilemmas that the tourism organisations
like Thomas Cook (UK) Limited faces usually have been discussed thoroughly. Apart from this,
an analysis of the Corporate Social Responsibility of a particular organisation has been done
briefly.
Introduction
Travelling is adventurous when the organisations involved in operations are ethically operating
their business. The travel and tourism sector often faces many problems that hinder its growth. In
this report, many of such issues that create dilemmas for this industry have been talked about.
Furthermore, an analysis followed by a brief discussion of how CSR activities of Thomas Cook
(UK) Limited affect a business has been done.
4.1 Analyse ethical dilemmas faced by the travel and tourism sector.
Tourism is an emerging market across the globe and is coming up with the plethora of
opportunities, such as employment, development, etc. On the other hand, the travel and tourism
industry is affected by many ethical issues, such as environmental degradation, corruption,
unethical customer issues, discrimination etc. No doubt that these factors are affecting the
growth of this sector, but there are many factors that are invisible to most of the world. One such
factor is dysfunctional government. Countries which are often attacked by the terrorist or where
civil wars or riots keep occurring frequently have a slower growth of tourism sector. For
example, Russia, Pakistan, and Iran are some those countries where the tourism has been majorly
hit by the anti-social activities, thereby making them the least preferred traveling destination
among other.
Lack of fair trade tourism principles also affects the tourist movement. Tourists are charged extra
(200% or more) for the goods and services they desire to take. This can be seen from small to
large businesses (Stephenson, 2014.). This is the violation to international trade policy. Apart
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from this, in the under-developed countries like Bhutan, Nepal, Myanmar, etc., there are a large
number of children working in the housekeeping and other hospitality staff. According to the
report of World Health Organisation, the lower literacy rate and high unemployment are key
reasons for this.
According to the senior manager working at Thomas Cook (UK) Limited, some social factors
also contributes in promoting the tourism industry. These factors include, social institution,
NGOs, host communities, etc. Government’s foreign policies are a key player in extending the
arms of this sector. The easy it is to get the visa of any country, the higher will be the tourist
influx in that particular nation.
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4.2 Analyse the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of a specified travel and tourism
business.
Thomas Cook UK Limited is the renowned name in the world of tourism. The reason being is its
ethical standards. The company believes in good business while benefiting the society equally.
Keeping this as its vision, the organisation integrated the concept of CSR. The Corporate Social
Responsibility (CSR) is a business initiative to carry out the assessment and taking the
responsibility of the firm’s effect on nature and social wellbeing. It can also be called as
“corporate citizenship” and can cost a short-term initial cost, but in a long run, it benefits the
organisation hugely by promoting the sustainable environment.
Thomas Cook set an example of Excellency by actively working to improvise the quality of life
of people in the countries they are operating. They are working with the government to build the
nation via sustainable development. They have earmarked the CSR budget to be at least 2% of
the average net profit. Moreover, CSR budget focuses the following:-
 Quality in education and increasing employment
 Better health and sanitation
 Rural and tribal area development
 Contributing in the relief funds
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Conclusion
In this report, the opportunities that the tourism sectors can offer were mentioned along with the
major dilemmas that the travel and tourism industry faces. In addition to this, the impact of these
dilemmas on the growth of the tourism sector was discussed. In the next part, the CSR activities
of Thomas Cook UK Ltd. were discussed and what CSR policies it has incorporated in its
functioning were mentioned.
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Conclusion
From the above report, it can be identified that there are various acts and legislation that is
considered by the sector of travel and tourism. The Thomas cook has to follow these laws to
fulfil their needs and goals. It is necessary for the Thomas cook to adopt these norms and laws as
it helps them to develop in the sector of hospitality. Thomas cook is also responsible to fulfil all
the responsibilities and duties towards the society and the employees should follow these to
duties. They are accountable to make the strategies and plans to ensure the betterment of services
and packages. The different laws are governed by the different acts and that provides the
advantage to Thomas cook to perform the services in effective an efficient manner.
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